Memorial of Saint Bernard, Abbot and Doctor of the Church
Why is it so difficult—not impossible!—for one who is rich to enter the Kingdom of Heaven? Because Heaven is for those who love, who want God. God is their desire; God is their reward. Those who have great wealth often struggle to want anything else, or become content with what they have since, in this world, if you have the money, you can have nearly anything you want.
But all the money in the world cannot purchase Heaven; all the wealth in the universe is not equal to God. “What profit would there be for one to gain the whole world and forfeit his life,” (Matthew 16:26)?
Thus when Peter responds by admitting that he and the others have given up everything to follow Him, Jesus assures them that they will be well repaid for anything they have given up for His sake, for they have forfeited the world to gain the whole of life: Jesus, who is Life itself (John 14:6).
In other words, the more they reject the world, the more room they have in their lives for God. Empty of possession and, being poor, likely empty of pride, they have the smallness of self—humility—to pass even through the eye of a needle, through the narrow gate, following in the way of Jesus who came from Heaven by doing the very same thing we must do to enter it: “Have among yourselves the same attitude that is also yours in Christ Jesus, Who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God something to be grasped. Rather, he emptied himself…” (Philippians 2:5-7).