Dear Brothers and Sisters,
Today, the 18th Sunday of Ordinary Time, the Word of God spurs us to reflect on what our relationship with material things should be.
Although wealth is a good in itself, it should not be considered an absolute good. Above all, it does not guarantee salvation; on the contrary, it may even seriously jeopardize it.
In today’s Gospel, Jesus puts his disciples on guard precisely against this risk. It is wisdom and virtue not to set one’s heart on the goods of this world for all things are transient, all things can suddenly end.
For us Christians, the real treasure that we must ceaselessly seek consists in the “things above… where Christ is seated at God’s right hand”; St Paul reminds us of this today in his Letter to the Colossians, adding that our life “is hid with Christ in God” (cf. 3: 1-3).
(from 2006, archived here)