FROM THE EDITOR
As the story goes, the rich man knew all the right answers. He wanted to know
from Jesus what he must do to inherit eternal life, and he ran up to the Good
Teacher and knelt before him. The rich man had always done right, ever since his
youth, and he told Jesus as much.
For most Christians, it’s a familiar story. But it’s also a deceptively mysterious
exchange. What was it, exactly, that had him running to meet Jesus on the road?
What had he hoped Jesus would tell him? What had he been prepared to do?
These things, we don’t know. What we do know is that before venturing any
answer at all, Jesus looked at him and loved him. God calls us each individually
into personal relationship with him, based on his knowledge of us and of our
need and circumstance.
In this man’s case, Jesus’ counsel was to sell what he owned and give the
money to the poor. It makes for a somewhat uncomfortable parable.
I wonder sometimes about the rich man’s grief and shock, about his going
away and his many possessions. I wonder, too, about the
disciples’ response to the incident. “It is easier for a camel
to go through the eye of a needle than for someone
who is rich to enter the kingdom of God,” Jesus tells
them. And they are “astounded” by this! They say to
For inside
one another, “Then who can be saved?” As though
bank vaults
everyone were rich, or everyone was a camel, or
as inside
every challenge our faith poses were as difficult
as moving through the eye of a needle.
sealed tombs,
Perhaps it’s comforting that the disciples
God is alive.
were as confused as we sometimes are by what to
make of wealth as people of faith. That we live in an
economic and material world, that we are confronted by
needs as well as wants, is as much the reality of our faith
landscape today as it was in Jesus’ day. What we set out to do
in this issue was to offer financial formation. To tackle the questions Scripture
poses to us about our material lives. What we hadn’t planned on was the
encounter we would make with stories of incarnation, resurrection, and new life.
The stories and resources you’ll find in this issue were courageously offered,
and I pray you might courageously encounter them — for inside bank vaults as
inside sealed tombs, God is alive.
Feast on the wisdom; if anything raises questions for you, ask a priest or
parishioner to coffee. And if it recalls something of your own experience, please
share it with us.
Buen camino, peregrino.
Chris Veillon, Editor
Cover: The Anointing of Christ, Julia Stankova (2009). Used by permission of the artist.