Today, the scribe who wanted to follow Jesus surprises us. Scribes opposed the Lord with great hostility, but He had no prejudice against them, so He tells him the absolute requirements that must be met to become a disciple: poverty and detachment, of which He is a living example, for He is not tied up to anyone or anything.

Freedom is the capacity to choose wisely and, therefore, requires a great degree of personal maturity. It is one of the most vindicated human rights but, at the same time, perhaps, the worst understood. More often than not, we are given to understand that to be free means to possess wealth, power, influence, authority. But, in fact, property is a trap: what we are said to possess, actually possesses and enslaves us. On the other hand, the evangelical freedom is just the opposite: to become detached, to empty oneself, to be poor. It is then when we become supremely free.

—O Lord, You have told us that the Truth will set us free. Give us your Spirit so that nobody can snatch this treasure away and we may belong to You only and You to us.