The Twelfth Sunday After Pentecost (1 Cor. 15:1–11; Mt. 19:16–26)

“It is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven” (Mt. 19:23). Here the reference is to a rich man who sees in himself many means and many strengths for his own well-being. But as soon as the one who has much cuts off every attachment to his possessions, extinguishes in himself every hope placed in them, and ceases to see them as his essential support, then in his heart he is the same as one who has nothing; for such a person the way into the Kingdom is open. Wealth then not only does not hinder but actually helps, since it provides the means for doing good. The problem is not wealth itself, but trust in it and attachment to it. This thought can be generalized thus: whatever a person trusts in and is attached to, by that he is made rich. Whoever trusts in God alone and cleaves to Him with his whole heart is rich in God; whoever trusts in something else, turns his heart to something other than God, is rich in that something else, not in God. From this it follows: whoever is not rich in God has no entrance into the Kingdom of God. This applies to family, connections, intellect, rank, sphere of activity, and the like.