Shrine Basilica of Our Lady of Health Vailankanni

There is a kind of riches that sows death wherever it holds sway: free yourselves from it and you will be saved. Purify your soul; make it poor so that you may be able to hear the Savior's call repeating: “Come, follow me” (Mk 10:21). He is the way on which the pure in heart walk; God's grace does not penetrate the soul that is burdened and pulled apart by a great number of possessions. People who look upon their fortune, their gold and silver and houses, as God's gifts, witness to their gratitude to God by assisting the poor with their goods. They know they possess them more on account of their brethren than on their own. They remain in control of their riches rather than becoming its slave. Such as these do not shut them up within their soul any more than they place their lives in them, but they untiringly pursue a wholly divine life. And if it should happen that their fortune vanishes they accept their ruin with a free heart. God calls “blessed” such as these and calls them “poor in spirit”, certain heirs to the Kingdom of heaven (Mt 5:3). (…) On the other hand, there are those who hug their wealth, rather than the Holy Spirit, to their heart. Such as these keep all their lands for themselves, constantly add to their fortunes and have no worries about anything except to be amassing more all the time. They never lift their eyes to heaven but wallow in material things. Indeed, these are no more than dust and will return to dust (Gen 3:19). How can anyone experience a desire for the Kingdom who carries a field or a mine instead of a heart within? Death will inevitably surprise this person in the midst of their uncontrollable desires. For “where your treasure is, there also will your heart be” (Mt 6:21).

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"You cannot serve God and mammon"

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