All of the money in the world cannot buy a ticket to heaven!
And any who spend their lives focused on the almighty dollar, the tantalizing portfolio, the Swiss bank account will not see God. If God is not our treasure in life, then he will not be our host in heaven! And this is a promise!
Jesus tells us in the gospel passage today that a very bad habit to get into in life is to be greedy! To grasp, to want, to paw, to seize, to take hold of! The very act of reaching and grabbing is a sure sign of the residue of Original Sin that still has a hold over human beings.
Everything, absolutely everything is a gift from God - we of ourselves have nothing at all - we are nothing at all; therefore, the only appropriate approach, stance and posture towards God and life is the have OPEN HANDS, open minds, open hearts to receive just and only what God knows we need and wants to give us! Jesus told us yesterday in the gospel passage to “pray always.” He meant with open hands and heart! Not with grasping, self-satisfying cupped hands and arms.
Abraham (in our first reading today) was the first to accept an incredibly valuable gift from God. God invited Abraham into a relationship of friendship, based on faith! Abraham humbly and obediently used the gift of God’s grace, God’s friendship and was empowered to do what God wanted him to do: and it was credited to him as righteousness - in other words, it counted towards making him pleasing in God’s sight and a candidate for a place in heaven for himself, his family and the whole human race, because God is faithful to his promises.
What we need to do today is to realize that we are poor in spirit, and that only by receiving God’s specially chosen gifts, will we be guaranteed a happy day today, and then the happiest day that will last forever, when the Last Day comes!
Thank you God, for gifting us (especially with your friendship), and for giving us the choice and the grace to be open enough to receive your gifts with open lives, and not grab for anything!
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