Gospel of Mark 10:25

The needle’s eye, according to some scriptural scholars, may refer to a narrow gate that merchants used to enter Jerusalem. And, since this small, oval-shaped gate could not allow a camel-with-baggage to pass through, a merchant traveler would have to remove the baggage first and literally push or pull the camel through the needle’s eye.

Everyone has had the experience of being burdened by some kind of attachment or baggage that prevented him or her from being truly happy. No one can possess the happiness of the children of God, which is within, while being attached to material things. You cannot have it both ways. You must let go of your attachments; attachments to money, to power, to possessions, to persons, to things, if you are to enter the kingdom of God. Once you do this, you can fully enjoy the things of God’s creation because you are not attached or controlled by any of them.

The problem with the rich man in today’s gospel was not that he was rich but that he was attached to wealth and possessions.

Fr. Hugh Duffy