Passing Through the Eye of the Needle

Most of us have heard that the Eye of the Needle refers to a short and narrow passageway to enter a city gate in Jerusalem. While a man could fit through the passage, if he were coming with his camel, that was another matter. Camels were often loaded with cargo. In order to get through the passageway, the man would have to unload all of it and then get his camel to crawl through on its knees to be able to fit. Another commentary I recently read, claimed that the Aramaic word for camel actually has a double meaning which is rope, namely a course thread made from camel hair. Whether we imagine a camel squeezing through a thin short gate, or a person attempting to thread a coarse fiber through the tiny eye of an actual needle, we get the picture. It is not going to be easy!

Detachment

If money does have a hold on our attention, then it is a great place to start, but what else may need to be stripped away? Some may feel they can rest easy on this one if money is not a personal attachment, but wealth is not the only thing that could be encumbering us. We need to dig deep.

Stripping away our attachments is not easy. It would be good to pause here and ask the Holy Spirit to reveal to you one thing that needs to be stripped away. These attachments may not necessarily be evil things but rather things that distract us from loving Christ and loving others. Perhaps it is time spent on sports, social media, work, or even obsessions with health.

For example, there is nothing innately wrong with having a social media account or enjoying sports, but consider a couple of questions. When you are standing in a grocery store line or driving to work, are you checking social media or listening to sports news when you could be reflecting on the word of God or sharing a smile or God’s love with someone waiting in line? Do you find that you always default in spare minutes to these hobbies which could be distracting you from hearing our Lord?

Giving our All

In Matthew 6: 24, Jesus is quite clear about this – we cannot serve two masters. Why not? He wants us to seek him with our whole heart, mind, and soul. He wants us to imitate Him. This means we cannot reserve little pockets of attachments and justify them by saying “but at least I…” or “It’s not that bad…” or “It’s my one vice…”

Jesus gave his ALL for us. Every word, action, breath, and beat of his heart was for us. He was thinking of us 100% of the time. As Christians we are called to give our ALL for Him. But how do we do this?

Like Little Children

“For men this is impossible, but for God all things are possible.” We need not read about God’s desire for our ALL and walk away ashamedly like the rich young man (Mt 19: 16-22). Jesus knows our weaknesses and offers us all the grace we need. We must just become like little children to access these graces.

The beautiful thing about little children is that they know they are little. They have no shame about asking a parent for anything and everything. When a little one wants to give a parent a present, he will ask his parent for money. Or , for the materials to be able to buy or create that gift. That is what we too must do.

Let us today resolve to accomplish two beautiful resolutions:

1. To pray to the Holy Spirit to reveal what attachment must be stripped away.

2. To ask Jesus to give us the grace to detach from it.

If every day we make these simple resolutions with an open childlike heart, we will by the grace of God “receive a hundred times more and inherit eternal life.” There will be nothing left to obstruct our passage through the eye of a needle.

[Readings: EZ 28:1-10; MT 19:23-30]