20th Week in Ordinary Times : Tuesday, 18th August 2026

In the movie Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith, there is a scene where Anakin Skywalker goes to see Yoda, Grand Master of the Jedi Order, for advice. He was deeply troubled and could not find peace because he feared losing his loved ones. Yoda could sense Anakin’s inner turmoil before his eventual fall to the dark side.

Yoda, in his wisdom, told him that attachment is the shadow of greed. In order to learn peace, he needs to learn to let go of the things he fears to lose the most. For me, this sums up the key message of the Gospel today.

All of us have different attachments in our lives and very often, these prevent us from growing closer to God. Life is already hard enough but sometimes, we make it harder ourselves. To be fair, we all need some things in order to live our lives but the question is – how much is enough? The sad fact is that, no matter how much we have, it will never be enough.

What we want is uncountable but what we need is not a lot. Our wants are the attachments that we must learn to let go in order to be free to love as children of God. Let us learn to lighten our load and “fly” towards the kingdom of Heaven.

PRAYER Lord Jesus, I desire to let go of my attachments; help me in my effort to do so.