A Reflection for the Memorial of St. Bernard, Abbot and Doctor of the Church
Find today’s readings here.
“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.” (Mt 19:23-24)
The documentary “Made in England: The Films of Powell and Pressburger” offers this interesting tidbit about the making of the film “I Know Where I’m Going!” (1945). Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger were, like other British filmmakers at the time, working on behalf of the war effort. When they were trying to get their movie made, they pitched it—the tale of a woman who falls in love with a Scottish naval officer while engaged to an older, wealthy industrialist—as a critique of materialism. The idea, I suppose, was that the film would remind the British public about the dangers of material attachments at a time when goods were scarce. Indeed, at one point one character remarks, “Money isn’t everything.”
It all seems incredible now. We live in the era of product placement. There are few films being made today that don’t encourage you, subtly or not so subtly, to buy something. Making the case against materialism seems, well, a little un-American. The state of our economy depends on us!
Jesus doesn’t mention the word “materialism” in today’s Gospel. But try this experiment. One definition of materialism is “a tendency to consider material possessions and physical comfort as more important than spiritual values.” So consider this rendering of the Scripture passage: “Amen, I say to you, it will be hard for one who values material possessions more than spiritual values to enter the Kingdom of heaven.”
Full disclosure: I’m not rich. So for many years I didn’t pay close attention to this Gospel reading. After all, it didn’t apply to me. But is Jesus talking about rich people alone, or about anyone whose material possessions get in the way of their relationship with God? Because if that’s the case, I have some work to do.
