28th Sunday in Ordinary Time Year B
Readings: Wisdom 7:7-11, Heb. 4:12-13, and Mk. 10:17-30.
“Riches in Themselves are not a Problem but our Disposition Towards Them.”
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
1. While in the Seminary, a formator told us of a Religious Sister who surprised her community several years back when she requested a fulltime ministry to help the rich people. The Superior was not impressed with the request. This was because one of their charisms was ‘to serve, cater for the poor’ not the rich who possess all they need. I wonder if her wish was ever granted. The error of the Sister Superior like that of most people is the imagination that the rich have everything and need nothing. This is not true. In one of his interviews, Bob Marley, a Reggae Musician insightfully said: “Some people are so poor that all they have is money.” If all you have is money, you must surely be unfortune.
2. The key word we are concerned about in our reflection today is not the rich or the poor but a human being, a person. Rich people are fortunate in some aspects of their lives but some others, they could be hurting, lonely, unhappy, unfulfilled, and hungrier in many ways than the poor. We all heard the story of the unhappy young man in the gospel. He approached Jesus and asked: “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” He is calculating Eternal Life in terms of having it as a reward, earning it, receiving it as a kind of wages or salary. He missed the point - eternal life is a generous gift of the Father to His Children. I know that there are many Christians who also will not like to hear me talk this way – some Christians do not like to hear of heaven as a gift, since they intend to gain Paradise, Eternal Life, through their own efforts, convinced as they are that one who does not gain Salvation through good deeds deserves to be punished rather than enter heaven. Read the Gospel well and you will realize that God would not be influenced as to who deserves more. (Matt. 20:15).
3. The question we may need to answer is – if Salvation is a gift from God, why should Jesus invite the rich young man to keep the Commandments. Many Christians see the Commandments as a kind of test, an examination that God has given to the people to verify if they are obedient or not, if they deserve heaven or not. The truth is that the Law of God is never a test; it simply points out the way to happiness. Did you notice the omission in the answer Jesus gave as he listed the commandments? – when he listed them, he left out the first three Commandments of the Decalogue, those that relate to God! This could mean that to have Eternal Life, it is enough to observe the second part of the Decalogue, since the only way to prove one’s love for God is shown or seen in one’s love for the people of God.
4. The young man has kept the Commandments since his youth, he declared. This answer helps Jesus to pass across another condition for following him outside the Commandments. The Rabbis had taught that one was righteous and upright once one kept the Commandments, but the Master adds another excessive demand: “Sell all that you have and give the money to the poor and you will have riches in heaven and then come follow me.” Did you hear the demand? It is not a matter of giving out something in alms; everything must be given up, and this is no joke. How can this demand be acceptable?
5. Here, Christians are divided into two classes, in one of the classes “the perfect,” those who take the vow of Poverty and thus put into practice what Jesus has ordered; and in the other class, “the simple,” those who can go on possessing goods and thus accept to be “imperfect.” This classification is faulty because we are all called to be perfect in the sense that Jesus does not condemn riches but the selfish accommodation of riches. The Christians ideal is not poverty, hunger or nakedness but the fraternal sharing of all the goods that God has made for all. It is not a sin to become rich out of hard work; reception of gifts; inheritance; and/or blessings in one form or another etc. The sin lies in becoming rich alone, in self-centeredness. St. Paul told the Corinthians that there are three things that last – faith, hope and love (charity) and that the greatest of these is charity. That is the central virtue in all Christians virtues. In the very old book titled “The Gospel of the Nazarenes,” it is written therein that Jesus in addressing the rich young man told him: “Many of your brothers and sisters live in dirt and die of hunger while your house is full of every good thing.”
In our first reading the Book of Wisdom challenges us to value wisdom for it informs all areas of our lives and helps us direct them appropriately. Wisdom allows us to see how all things – our money, our jobs and our accomplishments – lead us either toward or away from God. This is the wisdom that the young man in the gospel text lacks. He goes away sad because he is attached to his wealth. He keeps the commandments yet; he allows wealth to blind him from loving others. Come to think of it, if you take the instruction of Jesus to this young man literally, you miss the point – for you will sell everything hand it to the poor, then the poor becomes rich, and you become poor; then the poor will sell everything and hand to you who become rich, and it becomes a vicious circle. No, it is an attitude that is required here, a disposition and not a law.
6. Even the poor must have the disposition to share what they have with their brothers and sisters. That is why even us the priests and religious men and women that live the life of poverty must see to it that there is no internal rebellion to this instruction of Jesus to the young man, or a spirit of grabbing still finding its way in us. We must all learn how to share what we are blessed with; in whatever way this happens to us. When you bless me, I bless others and when I bless you, you in turn bless others. Life makes greater meaning when others smile because we reach out to them with our generosity.
In conclusion, dear brothers and sisters, we must note that the worry is not that we are rich; it is that we are stingy or selfish or self-centered. Being rich is lacking the disposition to share what you have of your gifts or blessings with others; being rich is not using your talents for the good of the community members, family members, or society at large in which you live. The disposition you have of what you own can bring you closer to God or far away from Him. The choice is yours. When others are to benefit from your riches/blessings then that is the Christian attitude, that is the right disposition; that is the recommendation for us today. To God be the glory and honor forever and ever. Amen.
Fr. Anthony D. Lawir,
Pastor, St. Agnes and Our Lady of Snows Parishes, Pittsfield and Dexter.