Tuesday of the TwentiethWeek in Ordinary Time
The gift and the sharing
Then Jesus said to his disciples, “Amen, I say to you, it will be hard for one who is rich to enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I say to you, it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for one who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.” When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished and said, “Who then can be saved?” Jesus looked at them and said … Then Peter said to him in reply, “We have given up everything and followed you. What will there be for us?” Jesus said to them, “… everyone who has given up houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or lands for the sake of my name will receive a hundred times more, and will inherit eternal life. Mt 19,23-29
In the yesterday’s gospel, the rich young man had decided not to follow Jesus and he went away being sad; the passage of today absolutizes that event by announcing that “it will be hard for one who is reach to enter the kingdom of haven”. We have already pondered on the concept of economy led by the gospel, which is based on the giving and on the sharing instead of on the holding. Today we continue the subject to understand how it is possible to implement the dynamics of the giving and of the sharing in the life of every day. The context in which, from an early age, we acquire these values, is the family which is the simplest form of society and of church, as the cell is for the whole universe. It is in the family that the gift of the life, the care, the attention, the education and the training for living our social life are received. It is there where we learn to share the time of the day, the space of the house, the daily bread, the well-being, the life plans, the opinions, the holydays, the problems and the concerns, the joys, the sorrows and the forgiveness. We, as parents, love to remind to our children, when they form their family, one of the most valuable lessons received from the life: what you share, is uniting, what you do not share, is dividing. But the main sharing, the one which allows all the others, is the prayer. It is true that everyone must have his own personal prayer, but it is also important to find the manner and the time for the family prayer, because the union and the communion are not the result of our efforts, but of the communion with the Lord. It is written in the Genesis that Adam and Eve, when they were created, before the fall, were in a so perfect communion with one to the another, that to be naked was not disturbing them. After the sin their relationship with God was broken and, consequently, the communion between them was also broken up to the point that they were ashamed to be naked and they ran to cover them. The scenario of the first man and first woman teaches us that when in a family the communion is broken, the only thing to do is to restore the relationship with the Lord by returning, or beginning, to pray together. If we will do it, the today’s gospel says, we receive a hundredfold in homes, fields and brothers. This, however, will not increase our wealth: the homes and the fields will be used to house and feed those most in need. In the end we will only possess what we shared: this is the gift of life which Jesus brought us.