Then Jesus looked around, and said to his disciples,“How hard it will be for people of wealth to enter the kingdom of God!”
many possessions
carry weight
whether used
or lost track oftheir gravity
pulls attention
whether seen or not
into their centertheir shininess
blinds to any value
other than their own
bright stara goody in hand
is better by far
than anything afar
beyond graspingto swim in one’s own
removes an ability
to breathe
in any other picture
As the propertied man went gloomily away, Jesus looked around and found there were yet trails of “stugnasas” that had not left with him.
A gloom of doom has settled over the disciples, perhaps, particularly, the Twelve.
Teachers are particularly aware of teachable moments and so the hidden ideas of the disciples needs to be addressed then, and now.
“Did you also have a hoarded hope that your reward would be great? Well, let’s be clear—It is impossible for those who treasure possessions to move beyond them.”
As Mann402 puts it:
The teaching on wealth in the conversation which follows certainly goes far beyond exhortations to almsgiving and certainly (so far as Jesus is concerned) contradicts any unqualified assertion that wealth is a sign of divine blessing. For the rich the difficulty lies in making a choice between caring for wealth and caring for the things of God.
In spite of a basic good-will toward the person seeking a moral compass that will work in life’s experience and whatever might be beyond this life and even Jesus looking upon him with a love that was the equivalent of Jesus’ love of G*D and Neighb*r, there is no automatic way to deal with a new norm of holiness that puts any form of blessedness in front of an appreciation for journeying with others into a wilderness that can only be appreciated on its own terms. Privilege and power lead us to turning back before we have had a wilderness retreat from which we return changed.
What seemed so easily said, “Extend love to the poor”, reveals the underlying sadness of not being able to choose for one’s heart’s desire—life in fullness. To be open to the mystical not bounded by the rational is to be open to change how and where we look.