The material distractions the world offers have been around for centuries and continue to distract us.  But why do material things distract us from living as God wants us to?  Jesus was aware of this and shows us the problem in action. The young man in today’s Gospel reading is basically a good man, he wants to follow Jesus, yet the pull of his possessions is too strong to ignore let alone to let go of. It’s all well and good being wise once the chance has passed but being wise is what we always want and need to be.  We should look at things around us with more objective eyes.  It’s a matter of what I need rather than what I want!  Faith asks us to see things with the eyes of God; appreciating the gifts He provides for us and so use them for building up His kingdom rather than building our own.  Even with the many people He sends to us to direct and guide us into living wise lives and we still don’t always get the message.  We pray today for the gift of wisdom that we may see and use those things and see in those people who are part of our lives, the means to live and share with all those around us real wisdom, and that wisdom comes into true focus when we start not from the things that distract us but from a true grip of the love God has for all people.

the more we are insensitive to the spiritual. (St Gregory the Great. He died in 604)