How many people are trying to imitate – in about 100% – the rich man Jesus speaks of in the present time? How many overworked people, out of breath, just to accumulate some money to be rich? To possess as much as possible! More often we hear the tragic words repeated as a motto of life: “Stupid, because poor, poor because stupid.” There is no reason to be surprised. After all, it is not the amount of wealth itself that is important, but the attitude towards it. Christ condemned the rich man not because he had a lot, but because he gathered to eat, drink, rest and use only. And it doesn’t take thousands of dollars for that. You can have several thousand in your pocket, collected over a week only to be spend in one Sunday evening. For this man, the money collected for a week becomes a deity. He thinks about it from morning to evening, he offers everything for it. What is not done on earth just to get some money? In reference to such a man, the Lord Jesus uses this strong word: “fool“. How many baptized people, how many among us would hear this hard word from God: “fool“? The wisdom of the Gospel lies in the fact that it places everything in its right place, knows what is truly worth, what is really a treasure.
According to the Gospel, the rich man is not the one who has accumulated treasure for himself, but the one who has acquired a great treasure in God’s sight. Christians, as disciples of Christ, should amaze the world with great wisdom of the Gospel, with this constant effort to accumulate true treasures: justice, goodness, mercy, prudence, etc. This is the wealth which decides about a man’s value, and and whoever strives for it is wise. Whoever has understood that true wealth is the wealth of the heart, not the pocket, has discovered the beauty of the Gospel and true Christianity. When faced with wealth, we stand at a crossroads. If we reach for temporal goods to use them, the world will recognize us as wise, but God – as we read in today’s Gospel – as foolish. If we put spiritual goods above money, the world will consider us foolish, but God will consider us wise. We have to choose which wisdom we want to participate in: Divine or Human.