On Wealth and the Wealthy (Matthew 19, 16-26) [1]

Saint Luke the Doctor

In today’s Gospel reading, we hear about a rich young man who was unwilling to share his wealth and thus become an heir to the kingdom of heaven. The Lord then told his disciples that it’s easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of heaven.

Before we give any interpretation of the words spoken by Christ to the rich young man, let’s hear what the Apostle Saint James has to about the wealthy: ‘Come now, you rich people, weep and wail over the miseries that are approaching you. Your riches have rotted, and your clothes are moth-eaten. Your gold and silver have rusted, and their rust will be evidence against you, and it will eat your flesh. What you have stored for the last days is as fire. Behold, the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you deprived them of, cry out, and the loud complaints of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts. You have lived on the…