A priest showed one of his friends his newly remodeled offices. The friend looked around at the rich oak paneling, leather chairs, and well-stocked bookshelves, and exclaimed, "If this is the poverty, bring on the chastity!"

In hearing this Word of God, people have the opportunity the rich man's brothers did not get. They have the chance to rouse themselves to serve justice and feed the hungry.

"I've got mine" can seem like a good life plan. We can extend that to "my family has theirs" or "our nation has ours" but it all comes down to the same dangerous scenario.

In one of the great role reversals of all time, the rich man in the gospel story learns too late of the consequences of ignoring the needs of those who are poor and suffering.

Having money doesn't make you happy. It just makes you rich.

From Marie Antoinette's "Let them eat cake" to the president of the United States who declared that ketchup be considered a vegetable in federal school lunch programs for the needy, it's amazing how out of touch people can become to the realities of life.

"No person, even with the most fervent of wills, can do everything. But every person can do something. And the moral distance between doing something and doing nothing is momentous indeed."

Our God is King of king and Lord of lords. We ask for God's mercy.

he self-satisfied lounge on couches and eat the animals and anoint themselves with the oils intended for sacrifice. Their big sin, however, lies in their failure to see the precariousness of their situation.

Every person who has more than is indispensable for material and spiritual well-being is a millionaire, and thus a debtor of those who have nothing. —Basil the Great (329-379)