19 August 2025, Tuesday of the 20th week, odd year
Judges 6:11-24; Matthew 19:23-30
Homily
The man in yesterday's Gospel, who sought perfection but was not ready to give up his great possessions to follow Jesus, left sadly. Jesus took the occasion to reflect with His disciples on how difficult it is for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. This is difficult because only those with simple hearts, that is, undivided hearts, can enter the kingdom. The heart of a true disciple cannot be divided between Jesus and anything else. Now, the riches to which we can become attached and which can take over our hearts and prevent us from giving ourselves totally to God can be of various kinds. They can be great material riches, but they can also be intellectual, such as the thirst for knowledge. They can be emotional, such as the need to possess another person or the need to be loved by everyone.
It can be the need to exercise power over others in a thousand and one ways. Let us not forget that the meaning of each of the renunciations involved in the commitment to monastic life is to promote this simplicity, this undivided heart. I say ‘promote’ this simplicity...
For it cannot be achieved by human means. It is always a pure gift from God: ‘For man, says Jesus, it is impossible; but for God all things are possible.’ Man must, however, be disposed to it, and this is the meaning of monastic renunciations.
After making these renunciations, as we did on the day of our monastic profession, we may be tempted to ask with Peter: ‘What will we get in return?’. The question is poorly phrased, because true love expects nothing in return. And yet, even if the question is poorly phrased, Jesus answers it, and He does so with marvellous generosity. No! Our renunciations do not earn us anything in return, but God responds to these small gestures of love with a love that is totally gratuitous, a hundredfold!
And the gratuitousness of this response of love on the part of God is emphasised in another way by the fact that this love overturns all the ranks of seniority or virtue that are so important to us. First or last? It no longer matters in the Kingdom and especially in the heart of God.
Armand Veilleux