Ez 28:1-10 / Mt 19:23-30

Ezechial has hard words for the Prince of Tyre in today’s first reading. For whatever reasons, the prince had let his imagination get the better of him, persuading himself that he had “the mind of a god” and that no one in the whole world was greater.

That was not a smart call for a mere prince, and it’s even more foolish for us ordinary mortals. Yet we seem to persist in it. For the five-year-old, it may take nothing more than a new coloring book to persuade him that he’s king of the mountain. For the teenager, it may take a trendy haircut and some new clothes, and for the adult, it may require a car or a house or a newly-expanded stock portfolio or all of the above.

However we happen to get there, seeing ourselves as king or queen of the mountain is always an illusion, because all we have, including our very lives, is on short-term loan. We are mere caretakers.

Some people require grave illnesses or tragic reversals to come to that wisdom. Why wait for that? Why not just own the truth now: All we have is from God, to be enjoyed and shared as generously as God shares with us. What love put us here! Shouldn’t that be our greatest delight?