The gospel for the memorial of St Bernard, Abbot and doctor of the Church, is taken from Matthew 19:23. Jesus said to his disciples, amen. I say to you, it will be hard for one who is rich to enter the kingdom of heaven. Again, I say to you, it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for one who is rich to enter the kingdom of God. When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished and said, who then can be saved? Jesus looked at them and said, for men this is impossible, but for God all things are possible.

Then Peter said to him in reply, we have given up everything and followed you. What will there be for us? Jesus said to them, amen. I say to you that you who have followed me in the new age, when the Son of Man is seated on his throne of glory, will yourselves sit on the 12 thrones judging the 12 tribes of Israel. And everyone who has given up houses or brothers or sisters, or father or mother or children or lands for the sake of My name will receive a hundred times more and will inherit eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and the last will be first.

In the first part of this gospel, Jesus is correcting something about the teaching that they’ve heard from the temple. If you follow all the regulations and rules of the temple, you will be rich. And that’s a sign that God is pleased with you. You’ll have prosperity. But then he reminds them that this whole idea of what it is to be called into the kingdom of God, to become part of the work of building the kingdom, is not something that you earn, it’s something that is given to you. It is done through you by God.

And so we see then what is at the heart of this work of being able to do what God calls us to do. And that is, it’s about giving things up, about putting everything second to this one most important thing, to build the kingdom of God. So he’s saying, be careful. It’s not about what is in it for us, it’s about what is in it for the work to be accomplished. Please take a few moments to reflect upon the thoughts that I’ve offered in these reflections, and then I will offer a closing prayer. Closing prayer Father, everything, it seems, that you ask us to achieve is something that you will accomplish for us, with us, in us, help us to step away from the sense that we are the center of our lives.

But you are the center, and you are asking us simply to allow you to be our God. And we ask this in Jesus name. Amen.