Memorial of Saint Pius X, pope

http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/082112.cfm

jesus said to his disciples:

"amen, i say to you, it will be hard for one who is rich

to enter the kingdom of heaven.

again i say to you,

it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle

than for one who is rich to enter the kingdom of god."

when the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished and said,

"who then can be saved?"

In today’s first reading the prophet Ezekiel excoriates the “Prince of Tyre.” He describes an arrogant man who is just as familiar to us today as he was to Ezekiel, and to people a thousand years before that. One of the reason the Church can speak of Natural Law is that people of every age recognize evil and describe it in pretty much the same language. We might not know what grace looks like but we certainly know evil when we see it. And the Prince of Tyre is not only evil, he is stupid about it.He thinks he has made his own good fortune, that he is a self-made man. Ezekiel uses scathing sarcasm to describe the Prince’s thinking:

oh yes, you are wiser than daniel, there is no secret that is beyond you. by your wisdom and your intelligence you have made riches for yourself; you have put gold and silver into your treasuries. by your great wisdom applied to your trading you have heaped up your riches….

The self-made man is still a self-made delusion. True, many people have worked hard and enjoyed success, but the circumstances fit their particular abilities; and those abilities were gifts from a society that fosters them. The poet Thomas Gray (1716–1771) reflected on that mystery in his Elegy written in a Country Churchyard:

Perhaps in this neglected spot is laid 
Some heart once pregnant with celestial fire;
Hands, that the rod of empire might have sway'd,
Or waked to ecstasy the living lyre.

But Knowledge to their eyes her ample page
Rich with the spoils of time did ne'er unroll; 
Chill Penury repress'd their noble rage,
And froze the genial current of the soul.

Full many a gem of purest ray serene
The dark unfathom'd caves of ocean bear:
Full many a flower is born to blush unseen,
And waste its sweetness on the desert air.

Some village Hampden that with dauntless breast
The little tyrant of his fields withstood,
Some mute inglorious Milton here may rest,
Some Cromwell guiltless of his country's blood.

Successful people think they made themselves but they are only the beneficiaries of the odds. The wealthiest stock broker is successful because, of the thousands who play the stock market, a few will succeed and many will fail. That's simple arithmetic. 

But their worse mistake is to think they and their camels can pass through the eye of a needle.

i tell you, make friends for yourselves with dishonest wealth, so that when it fails, you will be welcomed into eternal dwellings.

There is a comical scene early in the Book of Genesis. God looks down from the highest heaven and sees some kind of curious activity in the Tigris and Euphrates area. He goes down to take a look. Seeing the Tower of Babel he descends even farther to scramble their languages. This double descent reminds us of how high the Lord God is, and how low even the highest human edifices are. From God's perspective we are all equals. From God's perspective we are all alike. To be saved it's better not to separate yourself from others, or raise yourself above them, for he will cast down the mighty and lift up the lowly.