Year A
Ezekiel 28:1-10
Deuteronomy 32:26-27ab.27cd-28.30.35cd-36ab
Matthew 19:23-30
Detachment and Discipleship
God is not composed of extended parts (since he is not a body), nor of form and matter, nor does he differ from his own nature, nor his nature from his existence. Nor can we distinguish in him genus and difference, nor substance and accidents. It is therefore clear that God is in no way composite. Rather, he is entirely simple. (ST I.3.7).
However, we humans are composed of body and soul, our essence differs from our existence and so on, so how can we be Simple. In fact, Divine Simplicity proves God's transcends. God is absolutely Simple, hence since we are not God with absolute Simplicity, there is a simplicity we can attain. So how can we get this Simplicity.
Detachment solves this question. This is one thing about Detachment that makes it powerful; negating all riches, your are left with the one whose essence is his existence, the absolute simple being, God. Detachment automatically leads you to attaching to God. It is God the Simple being, who can help us to become Simple.
In the first reading, the Prince of Tyre is warned because with a proud heart, he deemed himself as god. As a prince, he has status, power and wealth. These are the criteria for him seeing himself as god. Thus people revere him. So because of his status, power and wealth, he sees himself as a god and does not regard God. This is the problem associated with riches.
Today, Jesus says it will be hard for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of God, and it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of God.
A quote from St. Augustine's confession shows how Detachment will let us achieve the one through whom and in whom all things are.
Late have I loved you, beauty so ancient and so new, late have I loved you! Lo, you were within, but I outside, seeking there for you, and upon the shapely things you have made I rushed headlong – I, misshapen. You were with me, but I was not with you. They held me back far from you, those things which would have no being, were they not in you. You called, shouted, broke through my deafness; you flared, blazed, banished my blindness; you lavished your fragrance, I gasped; and now I pant for you; I tasted you, and now I hunger and thirst; you touched me, and I burned for your peace.
He says God was within him, but he himself was outside seeking for God, and thus sought for wealth and so on. There has been a lot of teachings that proves that the wealthier you are, the closer you are to the Kingdom of God. This ideology was also spreading in Jesus's time so when he said the rich will find it difficult to enter the Kingdom of God they asked who then can enter the Kingdom of God?
However the first time Jesus told someone he is not far from the Kingdom of God was when he was talking about the two great commandments about Love of God and neighbors.
Mark 12:34
And when Jesus saw that he answered discreetly, he said unto him, Thou art not far from the kingdom of God.
Love is a complete sacrifice and so Jesus said the one with greater love is the one who lays his or her life for others (cf. John 15:13). So he Jesus Christ who opened the gate of heaven for us, became poor for our sake, so that by his poverty and becoming man like us, we might become rich (cf. 2 Corinthians 8:9).
Jesus is teaching us something we fail to realize about God. The Kingdom of God is God's status, power and wealth, so to attain this one must necessarily detach from his or her own Kingdom and hence empty oneself of status, power and wealth. In short, the Kingdom of God is God, so to have God who is Simple, you must strive to be Simple.
By
Sylvester Amakye-Quayson
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