On first reading today’s Gospel, it might appear that Jesus was suggesting that poverty and all its consequences – hunger, sickness, infant mortality – could make people happy. Jesus was talking to people who had come to Him to be delivered from that type of wretchedness. They came because they wanted change in their world. They longed for justice, and for satisfaction and joy in their lives. Jesus saw that hope in them, and praised and blessed them for it. Jesus felt they offered hope in the world because they realized the injustices were intolerable. They thirsted for transformation.
We tend to be material people. In contemporary culture, we attach great importance to the good things in life, so much so that wealth can become an idol that we worship and build our lives around. Jesus says this is wrong choice because the path of putting worldly prosperity before God does not lead to lasting happiness. We may be surprised to discover how often warnings about wealth appear in the Gospels. When Jesus speaks of those who are rich and those who are poor, which do we think we are?