Gospel (Mk 10,17-30) - At that time, while Jesus was walking along the road, a man ran to meet him and, kneeling before him, asked him: "Good Master, what must I do to inherit eternal life?". Jesus said to him: «Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone. You know the commandments: "Do not kill, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not bear false witness, do not defraud, honor your father and your mother". He then said to him, "Master, I have observed all these things from my youth." Then Jesus fixed his gaze on him, loved him and said to him: «You lack only one thing: go, sell what you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; And Come! Follow me!". But at these words his face darkened and he went away saddened; in fact he owned many goods. Jesus, looking around him, said to his disciples: "How difficult it is for those who possess riches to enter the kingdom of God!". The disciples were disconcerted by his words; but Jesus continued and said to them: «Children, how difficult it is to enter the kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God." They, even more amazed, said to each other: "And who can be saved?". But Jesus, looking them in the face, said: «Impossible with men, but not with God! Because everything is possible with God." Peter then began to say to him: "Behold, we have left everything and followed you." Jesus answered him, "Truly I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands for my sake and for the sake of the Gospel, who does not already receive now, in this time , a hundred times as much in homes and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and fields, along with persecutions, and eternal life in the time to come."

The commentary on the Gospel by Monsignor Vincenzo Paglia

«Good Master, what must I do to have eternal life?». The question that resonates in today's Gospel is decisive. And the man who approaches Jesus to question him represents a humanity that has a serious question about life in its heart, that ultimately feels that it is never satisfied, that it has not found an answer to the question about the meaning of its own existence. Jesus finds that man sincere, so much so that the Gospel reports his gaze full of love directed at that man: "Then Jesus, looking at him, loved him". There seem to be all the conditions for that guy to become a disciple of him. Jesus gets excited and dreams great things for him. And the word of Jesus, the Gospel, is a word that comes from his gaze full of love towards everyone. When he looks at the world with sadness, resignation, distrust, he does not communicate love. And love is truly such when it asks for concrete and demanding choices. The word of Jesus asked that man to cut off his riches from his life, to make a choice of the heart. But in the end he went away "saddened". How come? He did not have faith in the words of Jesus: «You lack only one thing: go, sell what you have and give to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven; then come and follow me." The rich man goes away sad: he had many possessions and had placed his safety and salvation in them. It is also the story of our generation immersed in a materialistic world and in a mentality marked by crisis, in which everything has become economics. Jesus denounces the power of money; attachment to riches can take possession of man's heart to the point of depriving him of joy. We too realize how the fear of losing wealth makes us sad and anxious, makes us lose the sense of solidarity, and makes us consider every sacrifice for the common good an impossible renunciation. The first wealth from which we must free ourselves is the sense of our self-sufficiency, the deep-rooted idea of being able to do things alone and not needing others. Those who think like this believe in the end that they can do without even God. "Who can be saved?" it is the profound question of salvation and the future that arises from our time to which Jesus continues to answer and to which we are called to respond with our faith. The Gospel tells us that the human heart has deeper needs than material things in which we often seek refuge from our anxieties (man does not live by bread alone!). Jesus asks us to place God above everything, and to consider the poor as our brothers, to whom we owe love and help. Thus the miracle of the "camel that passes through the eye of a needle" is achieved, when in the heart one chooses to no longer live defended, but to believe in the Gospel and leave everything else behind, to find it multiplied "a hundred times so much" from the love of God.