Twenty-eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time
The story of the rich man coming to Jesus and asking, “What must I do to inherit eternal life,” is one of the most compelling stories in gospel of Mark. In the upcoming verses, Mark will contrast this story with the story of the blind beggar who left everything a followed Jesus. Immaterial of how the story ends, it is not difficult to find ourselves in the story.
Let me offer three points for reflection:
1. What is your deepest question? That day, the man came to Jesus with a question: “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” Every one of us, depending on the stage of life we are in, has our deepest questions. For a little child the deepest question might be what he or she might get this year for Christmas. As we mature in life our deepest questions change because our needs change. Relationships, marriage, family, jobs, and security begin to replace childish questions. When we retire our deepest questions revolve around of life, death and eternity. No matter what stage of life we are in, our deepest questions tell us something about ourselves. For some people their deepest question all their life is how to accumulate more wealth or to have control. That says something about them. I find the story of man in the gospel very attractive because even though he had many possessions (in Luke version of the story he was also, young) his question was about eternity. What does his question tell us about him? I think that it tells us that his heart was in the right place; that he lived life with one eye on the world and the other on eternity; that he was asking the right questions; that he was on a search. What are your deepest questions these days? If you could ask Jesus a question today what would it be? And what would it say about you?
2. The Power of Wisdom. The church combines the story of the rich young man with the first reading from the book of Wisdom. I had said a few weeks back in another homily that wisdom reveals how God would act in the world. Wisdom reveals life from God’s perspective. Talking about the gift of wisdom, today’s reading says, “… all gold, in view of her, is a little sand, and before her, silver is to be accounted mire.” The rich young man in today’s gospel had the wisdom to ask the right question, but he could not accept Jesus’ answer. He simply could not comprehend life from Jesus’ perspective. For him, his possessions were significantly more important than the wisdom that Jesus was revealing. He reverses the role of wisdom and wealth. He sacrificed wisdom for the sake of his possessions whereas the book of Wisdom says, “… all gold, in view of her, is a little sand, and before her, silver is to be accounted mire.” In other words, wisdom lies not only asking the right questions but also in being able to accept the answer God might reveal. Wisdom lies in being able to live life from God’s perspective. If we want to be wise, it is not enough to ask the right questions; wisdom lies in also accepting what God has to say.
3. The Word of God: The Cource of Widsom. I want to begin my third point with the very first verse from today’s reading from Wisdom. It reads, “I prayed, and prudence was given me; I pleaded, and the spirit of wisdom came to me.” How can you and I be wise? Is wisdom available to all? The answer is found in today’s second reading from Hebrews. It says, “Indeed the word of God is living and effective, sharper than any two-edged sword, penetrating even between soul and spirit, joints and marrow, and able to discern reflections and thoughts of the heart. No creature is concealed from him, but everything is naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must render an account.” As I said earlier, if wisdom tells us how God acts in the world, then the first place to find wisdom is the Word of God. If we want to be wise, the first thing to do is to expose our lives to God’s word and expose God’s Word to our lives. We have to allow God’s word to penetrate our soul and spirit, joint and marrow, our thoughts and our heart. We can do this by reading, praying, reflecting and living God’s word. It is this interaction between God’s Word and life that makes us wise. It is when we act in in our lives in the way God would act that we gain wisdom. Here is an example. There were more shootings this week in our nation. One student was killed at Northern Arizona University the other at Texas Southern University. We are all seeking ways to end violence. If we are to be a wise nation, what are the kinds of questions we should be asking? What do you think the answer would be from God’s perspective? If we are to be wise, what do you think Jesus would be telling us? And like the rich man in the gospel, would be walk away from Jesus’ answer or hear what the ‘Word of God” has to say? Wisdom lies in exposing our lives to God’s word and allowing God’s word to penetrate our soul and spirit, joint and marrow, our thoughts and our heart.
As we offer this mass, let us pray that the "Word Made Flesh" will give us wisdom to live life from God's prespective. Amen.
- Fr. Satish Joseph