How hard it will be for those who have riches to enter the kingdom of God!
Is that true? Jesus said it (Mark 10:23) to His Apostles after the encounter with the rich young man, so it must be true. In affluent countries where everyone, even the poor, is rich in relative historical terms, Christians are inclined to think that Jesus did not really mean it. Or that it is not really true, and that Jesus was employing the hyperbole (“cut it off”, “pluck it out”) that marked Biblical preaching.
If it were true, and Jesus really meant it, it would follow that vast numbers of materially prosperous parishioners will not be counted in that number, when the saints go marching in.
Two of that number, their relics marching through St. Peter’s Square a few weeks ago, were rich. It must have struck Pope Leo XIV that both St. Pier Giorgio Frassati and St. Carlo Acutis were from rich families, since he held up in his homily other rich young men from history, too. He started with perhaps the wealthiest man in the history of Israel, King Solomon:
It was precisely this great abundance of resources that raised a question in his heart: “What must I do so that nothing is lost?”. . . .Solomon understood that the only way to find an answer was to ask God for an even greater gift, that of his wisdom, so that he might know God’s plans and follow them faithfully. . . .Yes, because the greatest risk in life is to waste it outside of God’s plan.
That sums up the encounter with the rich young man, who “went away sorrowful; for he had great possessions.” (Mark 10:22) He seemed already to know that he was going to “waste” his life, refusing God’s specific call.
“Many young people, over the centuries, have had to face this crossroad in their lives,” Leo continued. “Think of Saint Francis of Assisi, like Solomon, he too was young and rich, thirsty for glory and fame. But Jesus appeared to him along the way. . . .From there, he changed his life and began to write a different story: the wonderful story of holiness that we all know, stripping himself of everything to follow the Lord (cf. Luke 14:33), living in poverty.”
Leo included his own patron, St. Augustine, in those “many similar saints who gave themselves [to God] completely, keeping nothing for themselves.”
Is it necessary to renounce worldly riches to be saintly? Solomon did not and became corrupt, though he later repented. Francis and Augustine turned away from worldly wealth, the former so radically that Pope Innocent III was initially sceptical as to whether it was possible to live the new rule proposed by il Poverello.
On the other hand, there is Abraham – with pride of place in the Roman Canon as our “father in faith” – who was very wealthy, as was his grandson, Jacob, father of the twelve tribes.
Pier Giorgio belonged to one of Turin’s most prominent families. His father, Alfredo, irreligious like his mother, was a senator and ambassador, as well as founder and director of the prominent newspaper La Stampa. Frassati did not renounce his wealth, but shared it so abundantly, as Leo recalled in his homily, “that seeing him walking the streets of Turin with carts full of supplies for the poor, his friends renamed him Frassati Impresa Trasporti (Frassati Transport Company)!”
A deep sacramental and prayer life accompanied Pier Giorgio’s corporal works of mercy. He was a great friend, even a bon vivant in an entirely wholesome way.
Carlo Acutis depended upon his family wealth to become a practicing Catholic. If Carlo’s family had not been rich, he may not have been a disciple at all, let alone a canonized saint. Before Carlo was born in 1991, his mother had only been to Mass three times – for her First Holy Communion, Confirmation and wedding. His parents manifestly failed – and likely never intended to keep – the promises made at Carlo’s baptism, namely that they would strive to raise him in the faith.
The Acutis family was rich enough, however, to employ domestic servants in their Milan home. And it was one of these, a Polish nanny, Beata Sperczyńska, who introduced Carlo to God, taught him his prayers, answered his first questions about Catholic practice.
Neither Pier Giorgio nor Carlo renounced wealth, but managed to follow God using their family resources. It remains difficult, but not impossible, as Jesus concludes His conversation regarding salvation with the apostles about the rich young man: “With men it is impossible, but not with God; for all things are possible with God.” (Mark 10:27)
St. John Paul the Great loved to meditate upon the rich young man, devoted as he was to the pastoral care of youth from the beginning of his priesthood. One of his most important encyclicals, Veritatis Splendor, opens with an extended reflection of Jesus’ meeting with the rich young man.
Another document, less important but more lovely, also takes the rich young man as its starting point. Forty years ago, to mark the United Nations International Youth Year, and at the beginning of the initiatives that would become World Youth Day, John Paul addressed an Apostolic Letter to youth, entitled simply “Dear Friends” (Dilecti Amici).
The Holy Father proposed a remarkable and appealing idea. All young people are rich – even those immiserated in communist Poland – because to be young is to enjoy riches after a fashion. The rich young man had abundant “material possessions,” which “is the situation of some, but it is not typical.”
“Therefore [the Biblical passage suggests] another way of putting the matter: it is a question of the fact that youth is in itself (independently of any material goods) a special treasure of man, of a young man or woman, and most often it is lived by young people as a specific treasure.” To be young is to be rich!
“The period of youth is the time of a particularly intense discovery of the human ‘I’ and of the properties and capacities connected with it,” John Paul observes. “This is the treasure of discovering and at the same time of organizing, choosing, foreseeing and making the first personal decisions, decisions that will be important for the future.”
The rest of the letter takes up the question of whether the treasure of youth “necessarily alienates man from Christ?” Many answer yes, that young people are simply not that interested in long-term questions, let alone existential or eternal ones. Religion is for another phase of life. John Paul argues the opposite, that the ideals of youth, the search for meaning, are precisely youthful questions that encourage one to seek Christ. Sts. Pier Giorgio and Carlo did just that – rich young saints for an affluent age.
