In today’s first reading, Ezekiel prophesies the downfall and death of the prince of Tyre due to his thinking of himself as a god. In fact, God says against the prince: “Because your heart is proud and you have said, I am a god… because you compared your mind with the mind of a god, therefore … they shall thrust you down to the Pit and you shall die a violent death in the heart of the sea”. Mary our Mother said in her song of praise: “My soul praises the Lord; he has scattered the proud with all their plans and brought down mighty kings from their thrones and has lifted the lowly” (see Lk 1:46-55). In the Gospel, Jesus tells the disciples of the difficult task of entering the kingdom of God. Jesus said: “Truly I tell you; it will be hard for a rich person to enter the kingdom of heaven. I tell you; it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God”.Jesus was not opposed to wealth per se, nor was he opposed to the wealthy. Jesus' warning reiterated the wisdom of the Old Testament: "Better is a poor man who walks in his integrity than a rich man who is perverse in his ways" (Proverbs 28:6; see also Psalm 37:16). St Augustine of Hippo reminds us that we are all poor beggars of God. “Even though you possess plenty, you are still poor. You abound in temporal possessions, but you need things eternal. You listen to the needs of a human beggar, yet you yourself are a beggar of God. What you do with those who beg from you is what God will do with his beggar. You are filled and you are empty. Fill your empty neighbor from your fullness, so that your emptiness may be filled with God's fullness" (Sermon 56,9). Blessings. Fr. Mussie