Tuesday of the Twentieth Week in Ordinary Time
(Ezekiel 28:1-10; Matthew 19:
23-30)
What do you give to the person who has everything? A gilded telephone? Designer earbuds? There will always be a new luxury product to spend
one’s money on. The prophets chastised such
conspicuous consumption. It not only ignored
the needs of the poor; it prioritized things to God. In today’s Scriptures both Ezekiel and Jesus
criticize the accumulation of wealth for consumption.
Ezekiel sets his sight on the prince of Tyre. The man has accumulated countless riches but
has not heeded the Lord of Israel. The
prophet predicts he will have a hard fall at the hands of the Babylonian invaders. Jesus, likewise, foresees a bitter outcome
for those who make money their greatest treasure. He says that they cannot enter the kingdom of
God.
Money itself is not evil.
Indeed, it enables us to live with a modicum of ease. Pursuit of money while forgetting to honor
God and to assist our neighbor, however, will cause our undoing. We may think that we are increasing our
stature, but in truth we are preparing our ruin. The proper stance toward money is always
gratitude to God for having received it and generosity toward the needy for
having imitated Christ in their suffering.
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