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Master·evangeli.net

Today's Gospel + short theological explanation

Tuesday of the Twentieth Week in Ordinary Time
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Gospel text (Mt 19:23-30): Jesus said to his disciples: “Amen, I say to you, it will be hard for one who is rich to enter the Kingdom of heaven. Again I say to you, it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for one who is rich to enter the Kingdom of God.” When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished and said, “Who then can be saved?” Jesus looked at them and said, “For men this is impossible, but for God all things are possible.” ...

The original sin: a "disruption" in the beginning

EDITORIAL TEAM evangeli.net (based on texts by Benedict XVI) (Città del Vaticano, Vatican)

Today, in the Gospel we are as astonished as the disciples to hear that salvation is not possible for humanity. This is how serious the damage was, done by the “disruption” in the beginning. The images put forward in Genesis are eloquent.

Our first parents, from being naked without being embarrassed (original innocence), suddenly need to cover up, hide themselves, be afraid and blame each other. What has happened to cause this shift is original sin; they fell for the illusion of self sufficiency that is impossible: to believe that they would be as powerful as God if they ate from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. It is a moral perversion that has its origin in human autonomy. We are free to act with love, but not to invent love. This is how, by caricaturing the moral law, the "Evil One" managed to make humanity closed to the love of God.

—Lord, you are the Way, the Truth and the Life: Allow me to live off you, you who are Love.