MONDAY, TWENTIETH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME
Jgs 2:11-19 Ps 106:34-40,43-44 Mt 19:16-22
BREAK FREE FROM EVERY IDOL
The first reading reveals a truth about human nature: we are quick to forget God’s faithfulness and chase after lesser loves. The Israelites abandoned the Lord to serve foreign gods, invit ing suffering and oppression. Yet, in His mercy, God raised up judges to deliver them, only for the people to fall back into sin once the crisis passed. This pattern reflects our own spiritual struggles – how easily we compromise, how quickly we turn to false securities, and how desperately we need God’s interven tion. The rich young man in the Gospel mirrors this struggle. He seeks eternal life but is unwilling to surrender the one thing that holds him back – his wealth. Jesus looks at him with love and invites him to a radical trust: “Go, sell what you have… then come, follow Me.” Yet the young man walks away sorrowful, en slaved by the grip of material comfort. His story warns us that half-hearted devotion is really no devotion at all.
Today, we are challenged to examine our attachments. The Isra elites clung to false gods for security; the rich young man clung to his possessions for identity. What do we cling to instead of God? Success, relationships, comfort, or control? True freedom comes when we, like the judges of Israel, turn back to God with our whole hearts, or like the disciples, leave everything to fol low Christ. Yet there is hope in this call to surrender. God did not abandon Israel despite their repeated failures, and Jesus did not reject the rich young man but loved him and offered him more. The same mercy extends to us. If we dare to release what we hold too tightly, we will discover that God alone satisfies. Let us pray for the courage to break free from every idol, trusting that in Christ, we gain far more than we could ever lose.
Response: O Lord, remember us with the favour you show to your people.
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