One of the fundamental things that are wrong with Christianity in this country and elsewhere (and we can thank Protestantism for that) is that anyone who is literate think they can read a quote of the Bible and interpret it according to the own whim or understand it in a literal manner. However, the practice for Catholics has been different (at least before Vatican II). It used to be that we had a Magisterium to interpret Holy Scripture for us and teach us laity everything we ought to know.

I believe the annotation I cited is the proper understanding of that biblical verse. The Church does not condemn rich people nor material treasure per se. There are many Protestants who have an issue with the pomposity of the Catholic Church. The physical splendor or our parishes, ceremonies, vestments, etc. There are some who think we would be better off demolishing our magnificent buildings and having our priests dressing in rags so we can use that money to give it to the poor (I would think Bergolio and his communist "church of the poor" is among those).

This glorification of the poor is of communist nature; and not Catholic. There are some who are born poor, some rich, and many in between and there is nothing wrong with the differences. The Church has never taught that only the poor attains Heaven. Traditionally, only the religious are required to have vows of poverty, although we do find saints who have renounced all their wealth and embrace poverty and this is very meritorious as well; especially because it takes heroic effort to renounce voluntarily to the richness. Different from the poor, who convince themselves that they are better off being poor as if poverty would be an ideal in itself, just because they are aware they will probably be poor for the rest of their lives, no matter what they do, so they resign themselves, but given the option, the would NOT choose poverty. There is not merit on that! .

Also, I don't think there is anything intrinsically wrong with a poor man trying to improve his quality of life for himself and his family, through hard and honest work, provided he does not commit sin in doing so.