28th Sunday – October 11, 2015

Wis 7:7-11; Heb 4:12-13; Mk 10: 17-30

There is an old story about an 18th century man who was moving overseas.  His life's savings of gold and silver coins were carried in a big money belt he wore around his waist.  The ship hit an iceberg and started to go down.  It was sinking so fast that many people had to jump in the water and swim to the lifeboats already launched.  The man jumped into the water, but because he could not bear the thought of leaving that heavy money belt behind, he went to the bottom of the sea. The story ends with this haunting question: "Would you say that this man had his money, or that his money had him?"  Jesus tells the story of such a man in today’s Gospel.

 

Introduction: Today’s readings remind us that we do not possess anything in our life that we refuse to surrender to the Lord.  But, in reality our "possessions" often possess us, and we become their prisoners. What we really do is give our "things” top priority in our lives. Thus, we violate the First Great Commandment, which demands that we give absolute and unconditional priority to God.  The first reading advises us to use the God-given virtue of prudence and to seek true wisdom rather than to seek vanishing realities like riches or political and social influence.  Solomon chose Wisdom before everything else.  But when he accepted Wisdom, he received everything else along with her. Since Jesus is Wisdom Incarnate, when we put following Jesus ahead of everything else, we receive everything else along with Jesus. The second reading warns us that we are accountable before God as to how we use our blessings and that the “living and effective word of God” must be our guide in evaluating our use of God's blessings.  In today’s Gospel selection (Mark 10: 17-30), we find three sections: a narrative about Jesus’ encounter with a rich man, Jesus’ sayings about wealth as a possible obstacle to following him and Jesus’ promise of reward for those who share material possessions with the needy. Jesus reminded the rich man of the commandments that deal with our relationships with other people, and challenged him to sell what he had and to give the money to the poor.  Jesus’ challenge exposed two missing pieces in the rich man’s life: a sense of compassion for the poor and the willingness to share his blessings with the needy.  Jesus shocked his disciples with this challenge to the Jewish belief that material wealth and prosperity were signs of God's blessings. Instead, he declared that true religion consisted in sharing one's blessings with others rather than hoarding them and getting inordinately attached to them. Jesus’ teaching exposes the shallowness of our own easy assumptions about wealth and raises questions about the real basis of our security and hopes.

First reading, Wisdom 7:7-11: About a hundred years before the birth of Jesus, the Jewish community was a minority in the great cosmopolitan city of Alexandria, Egypt, cut off from the comforting religious institutions of Jerusalem, and subject to great cultural pressure from the pagan Greek society. They were in danger of losing their identity because of the constant temptation to follow Greek philosophy and Greek morality rather than their Faith traditions.  A learned and faithful Jew assessed the situation of his fellow Jews in Alexandria and tried to bolster their faith with a book, now called Wisdom, which offered them a virtuous way of life.  By "wisdom" the author meant not just worldly wisdom but a spiritual wisdom that included adherence to older Jewish traditions.  Today's first reading, taken from the book of Wisdom, teaches, somewhat analogously, that one should prefer wisdom to every other good thing.  It quotes from King Solomon’s personal valuation of wisdom: “I preferred her [true wisdom] to scepter and throne, and deemed riches nothing in comparison with her.” In his prayer for wisdom, the first-century BC Alexandrian Jewish wisdom teacher identifies wisdom as the greatest possession of all and contrasts it with material possessions. True wisdom comes from God; it is the ability to see things as God sees them and to understand things as God understands them.  Only Divine wisdom can teach us how to live wisely and successfully in life, making wise choices. We are also invited to see Jesus as Wisdom Incarnate and to give him priority over everything else in life.

Second Reading, Hebrews 4:12-13: The Letter to the Hebrews was written to bolster the faith of Jewish converts to Christianity.  These converts faced the contempt of their former Jewish friends, and they felt nostalgia for the institutions of Judaism (rituals, sacrifices, priesthood, etc.), that were either absent or greatly transformed in their new religion, namely Christianity.  This letter tries to show them in what ways the new religion of Christianity is better than their old Jewish faith.  St. Paul tells them that "The word of God is something alive and active: it cuts like any double-edged sword.”  No wonder the “two edged sword” in today’s Gospel story of the young rich man, cuts through all our conventional ways of thinking and drives us to reflect on the things that really matter!

Exegesis: The rich and good young man’s sins of omission.  Obviously, this young man who came to Jesus in search of eternal life really wanted to be accepted by Jesus as a disciple. However, Jesus did not want this man as a disciple on his own terms, but rather on Jesus' terms.  The young man claimed that, from his youth, he had observed all the commandments Jesus mentioned, including the fourth commandment.  His tragedy was that he loved "things" more than people.  He was trapped by the idea that he could keep his possessions and still obtain God's mercy.  He failed to realize the fact that his riches had built a wall between himself and God.  In other words, his possessions “possessed" him.  Even though the rich man had never killed, stolen, or committed adultery, he was breaking both the commandment forbidding idolatry and the one commanding love of neighbor.  He worshiped his wealth more than God.

The unaccepted challenge: Jesus realized that this rich young man was shackled by his possessions.  So he challenged the young man by listing those precepts of the Decalogue that deal with social and familial relations. Then Jesus told the young man that, if he wanted to be perfect, keeping the commandments was not enough. He challenged the young man to share his riches with the poor.  "There is one thing lacking.  Sell all you have and give to the poor, and then you will have real treasure. After that, come and be with me." Jesus thus makes it clear that a true follower who wants to possess eternal life must not only be a respectable gentleman who hurts nobody, but also someone who shares his riches, talents and other blessings with the less fortunate.  In other words, Jesus tells the young man that life is a matter of priorities. God must have the first priority in our lives. Unfortunately, the rich man was unwilling to accept Jesus’ idea that wealth is not something to be owned but rather something to be shared with others.  Jesus asked him to break his selfish attachment to his wealth by sharing it.  He makes the same challenge to each of us today.  Our following of Jesus has to be totally and absolutely unconditional.  Our attachment may not be to money or material goods, nor to another person, a job, our health, or our reputation.  We must be ready to cut off any such attachment in order to become true Christian disciples, sharing our blessings with others.

Camel through the eye of a needle: Jesus uses a vivid hyperbole, or “word cartoon,” to show how riches bar people from Heaven.  The camel was the largest animal the Jews knew, and the eye of a needle the smallest hole.  The needle’s eye is variously interpreted.  Most probably Jesus used it literally.  The little, low and narrow gate on the outer wall of the city of Jerusalem through which even a man on foot could hardly pass erect, was also called “ The Needle’s Eye” in Jesus’ time.  The Greek word used for camel is kamelos, which can also mean a ship’s thick cable or hawser rope. Some modern Bible scholars think that both of these interpretations are attempts to "water" down the impossibility of getting a camel through the eye of a needle. Jesus is saying that it is not impossible, by the grace of God, for a wealthy person to keep his spiritual integrity, but it is extremely difficult and uncommon. Why do riches prevent man from reaching God?  First, riches encourage a false sense of independence.  The rich think that they can buy their way to happiness and buy their way out of sorrow and, hence, that they don’t need God.  Second, riches shackle a man to this earth (Mt. 6:21).  If a man’s interests are all earth-bound, he never thinks of the hereafter. Third, riches tend to make a man selfish.  But we need to understand that Jesus is not against riches as such, nor against the rich.  Zacchaeus, Joseph of Arimathaea and Nicodemus were Jesus’ close friends and they were rich.  In other words, Jesus is talking about our attitude towards wealth.  The Bible doesn’t say that money is the root of all evil; it says that the love of money is the root of all evil. Jesus also challenges the Jewish belief that material wealth and prosperity are signs of God's blessings and condemns a value system that makes "things" more valuable than people.

Life messages: 1) We need to “Do something beautiful for God” by reaching out to others. That's the message we need to reflect on.  Our most precious possession is our souls.  Let us give ourselves away and give lavishly.  Mother Teresa puts it in a different way: “Do SOMETHING BEAUTIFUL for God. Do it with your life. Do it every day. Do it in your own way. But do it!”

2) We need to accept the invitation to generous sharing. Jesus was so generous that he gave us his very self.  The crucifix is "Exhibit A."  To follow Jesus we must have a generous heart and be willing to give our money away in order to express our generosity.  In the heart of every Christian there should be a desire to give.  Martin Luther says that the man who has given his heart to God will also give God his wallet.  God does not have to extort money from those who love him. God does not ask us to give up our riches, but He does ask us to use them wisely in His service.  We must manage our possessions wisely, so that they do not gain control over our hearts.  Let us also ask the question: "How do I use my talents?"  God gives us talents.  Hence, they are not really ours.  He lends them to us to be used in this world.  How do we use our talents?  What about time – do we use it for God?  We each get 168 hours every week.  How do we use our time?  Are we too busy to pray each day?       

3) “You are lacking one thing."  We all have something in our lives that serves as a major obstacle to happiness and peace.  We must recognize this obstacle and address it head-on.  It may not be riches -- it may be anger, holding grudges, alcohol, drugs, lust, apathy, lies, unfaithfulness, theft, or fraud.  Let us invite God into our lives and into our efforts to face and remove that one obstacle to holiness.  We have a decision to make: whether to go away sad like the rich young man, or to follow Jesus and be happy.  Let us choose happiness.

4) We need to follow Jesus on his terms, and not on our terms.  This involves giving up whatever in our lives leads us to evil.  That’s step one.  Sometimes it may involve giving up things which are good.  As parents, we might consider all the time and personal recreation and relaxation (all good things), which we have given up over the years for the sake of the children.  As a mother or father who is also  a disciple of Jesus Christ, this was required of us, and we made the sacrifice.  When we follow Jesus on his terms, there may be certain crosses to bear, but deep down in the core of our being there is peace, and there is joy, because we know that we are doing our best to carry out God’s perfect will in our lives.

The French have a story about a millionaire, who spent his days counting his gold coins.  Beside his palace was a poor cobbler who spent his days singing as he repaired people's shoes.  The joyful singing irritated the rich man.  One day he decided to give some gold coins to the cobbler.  At first the cobbler was overjoyed, and he took the coins and hid them.  But then he worried about the coin and was constantly going back to make sure the coins were still there.  Then he worried in case someone had seen him, and might steal the coins.  Consequently, he ceased to sing.  Then one day he realized that he had ceased to sing because of the gold coins.  He took them back to the rich man and said, "Take back your coins and give me back my songs."  Inordinate attachment to riches can take away our freedom and joy.

( Source: Homilies of Fr. Anthony Kadavil)