AUGUST 17, 2026 FATHER HENK VAN MEIJEL
We’ve heard, if you’re coming to church, you’ve heard this Gospel reading probably a thousand times in different versions. And it is in all three synoptic gospels: Matthew, Mark and Luke, and it is really challenges us.
What is our relationship with our possessions? It leaves us a little dry because I wonder what happened to that young man who had those many possessions. What happened to him? Was there, later on, a conversion? Did he come to an understanding that his riches cannot bring him to heaven, that it cannot buy him any more time here on earth?
When God calls us, God will call us. And so, it is really about holy indifference with our possessions. The more we rely on our possessions, the more the possessions are our God, and they will control us. But there has to be a conversion to get away, to go to that holy indifference.
And that holy indifference, often, we need some shock therapy. Some people, they gradually convert, and some people need shock therapy. I needed shock therapy, and it really put my nose into the messiness of life. And I had to come to that understanding that I had a business, I had a house, I had investments, that it really, in the scheme of things, meant absolutely nothing.
So, but I got a shock therapy, and I was able to give it all away, no problem. I embraced, I entered the Jesuits, they accepted me, and I took the three vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience, and it gave me a new life.
In the first reading of Ezekiel, we have Ezekiel, he’s talking about this shock treatment. Ezekiel is reminding or trying to tell the people in Jerusalem, Jerusalem is going to fall, and he compares it to the death of his wife. God tells him that his wife would die and that he’s not to grieve, and to be that sign that destruction will come to Jerusalem and there won’t be time to grieve.
The enemy will take over, the Babylonians will take over, and everyone has to take care of themselves. No time to grieve, but also a time to come to their senses, and actually, the responsory Psalm today, the response was, “You have forgotten God, who gave you birth.”
A lament that someone really was struggling. But in that struggling, that’s where the conversion can be, where we can see that all our possessions mean nothing. And most people will come to that understanding on their deathbed. But it’s good if we come to that understanding way before the deathbed.
Yes, we need to have some possessions, that that’s there’s no problem with that. But what is my relationship? Can I give freely to those in need? Do I have to have the latest car, the latest computer, the latest whatever, the latest, grand holiday, and a little bit more than my neighbour has.
It’s about that holy indifference. And in holy indifference, we will find God and we will find true happiness.
On our universal calendar today we have Saint Jeanne of the Cross, 1666, and died in 1736 at age 70, and she was fairly well off. Her mother ran a Christian goods store, and business was good.
When her mother died, she took over, and the business flourished because she was just hardworking and had a good mind on her shoulder, and she was very well off. And actually, she received some visions, and a pilgrim who came to the store once said to her that there would be a conversion and that one day she would serve the poor.
With these visions, slowly her possessions meant less and less, just like in my own life. My possessions became less and less important, and the good of others became more important, the church became more important.
In 1704, she actually started with a group of women coming together; she got her friends together, and she opened her big house, and she opened it up as a place for poor widows.
And anyway, God works through all of that. She continued to work as hard as she was working in the store. And at her death in 1736, there were 12 communities. She had 12 communities that expanded in 20 years quite a bit, and serving those in need.
She found that conversion in doing good, and she learned that all her possessions meant nothing. The greatest gift we have is, of course, our hands and what’s between our ears.
All that God asks us is to use our mind and body for the good of others, for community. Often, of course, that means in our families. Our families come first, it’s our first vocation. But also to spread that out into the community, through our church communities, or whatever we’re working with in our own communities, to bring new life and help to those in need. Amen.
