Come now, you rich, weep and howl for the miseries that are coming upon you. Your riches have rotted and your garments are moth-eaten. Your gold and silver have rusted, and their rust will be evidence against you and will eat your flesh like fire. You have laid up treasure for the last days. Behold, the wages of the labourers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, cry out; and the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts. You have lived on the earth in luxury and in pleasure; you have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter. You have condemned, you have killed the righteous man; he does not resist you.

Ps 48:14-20 R./ How happy are the poor in spirit; theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Jesus said to his disciples. “Truly, I say to you, whoever gives you a cup of water to drink because you bear the name of Christ, will by no means lose his reward. “Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him if a great millstone were hung round his neck and he were thrown into the sea. And if your hand causes you to sin, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life maimed than with two hands to go to hell, to the unquenchable fire. And if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off; it is better for you to enter life lame than with two feet to be thrown into hell. And if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out; it is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into hell, where their worm does not die, and the fire is not quenched. For every one will be salted with fire. Salt is good; but if the salt has lost its saltness, how will you season it? Have salt in you.
In today’s gospel Jesus tells that if we give even just a cup of cold water to someone because he belongs to Christ, we will not go unrewarded. He proceeds further to tell us of the punishment we will receive if we do harm to his little ones. Here Jesus uses exaggeration or hyperbole, to make his point clear. He does not want us to cut off a hand or pluck out an eye. The point he wants to make is that we should be prepared to make any sacrifice in order to avoid any deadly sins from our lives. We are responsible for our actions and hence we should make right decisions to do good and avoid evil. We need to turn to God as the source of lasting happiness and perfect fulfilment.