28th Sunday of Ordinary Time (Cycle B)

October 11, 2009

by Reverend Deacon Lawrence A. St. Onge

Today’s gospel message about wealth can be very difficult for us Americans. We live in a country that is extremely rich by the world’s standards. Although we comprise a very small portion of the total world population, we consume approximately 60% of all the world’s goods. True, we do have some poor in this country, but the number is relatively small compared to the total population, and in comparison to so many other countries where the poor comprise the major segment of the population. Furthermore, even the degree of poverty is not the same. By world standards, the poor of our country are relatively rich in comparison to the poor in the rest of the world. We Americans live in a culture where the more you have, the more successful and the more respected you are. It is in the light of this setting that we need to look at Jesus’ message to us in today’s gospel.

To one degree or another, all of us find it hard to accept Jesus’ words in today’s gospel.  They seem so unreasonable that they even tend to anger us somewhat, for we have been taught by our culture, and especially by the advertising media, that the very opposite is true. And we who are Jesus’ disciples, who accept the name “Catholic” to describe our living and life, also tend to believe all this right along with the rest of America. That should not surprise us though, because Peter and the other disciples in today’s gospel didn’t seem to believe it either. They are shocked, and there is even a slight anger expressed in there rhetorical question to Jesus: “Who then can be saved?” relative to his saying that “It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for one who is rich to enter the kingdom of heaven.” Indeed, Jesus’ words can be difficult and hard for all of us to hear.

A prominent psychiatrist has called our preoccupation with money “The number one crippling disease in our society.” He credits our “money sickness” as the source of so much frustration and anxiety. This love of money, he says, can cripple us, diminish us, and even cause serious physical problems, as well as demolish marriages, break up families, and even drive persons to violence and suicide.

In today’s gospel, a rich young man asks Jesus, “Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” Presumably, this young man has made it, since he is described as being rich, and to the Jews of that time, and even to many people today, personal wealth is viewed as a sign of God’s favor. But something appears to be missing in this man’s life. There seems to be an emptiness and a lack of inner-peace. He is not experiencing a wholeness of life. He is not a well-rounded person, in this sense.

In answer to the young man’s searching question, Jesus tells him to “keep the Commandments.” But the young man replies, “Master, I have kept all these from my earliest days.” In other words, “All my life I’ve been obedient to the religious laws, but something is still lacking in my life. My soul is troubled. What is missing in my life that makes me feel so empty inside?”

Jesus says to the young man: “There is one thing you lack. Go sell everything you own and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasures in heaven. Then come, follow me.” And “the rich young man’s face fell at these word,” we are told, “and he went away sad, for he was a man of great wealth.”

What we need to ask ourselves is: What do we yearn for and cling to – God who is “good?” or to this world and its “goods?” Which kingdom is our life devoted to? It’s one or the other, says Jesus. The Wisdom writer in today’s 1^st reading is clear about his choice: “I prayed, I pleaded, I preferred,” he says. “I preferred God and Wisdom above worldly power, riches, knowledge, good looks – and yet I felt rich, because I possessed God.”

St. Paul said it so very well in his letter to Timothy: “Tell those who are rich in this world’s goods not to be proud, and not to rely on so uncertain a thing as wealth. Let them trust in the God who provides us richly with all things for our use. Charge them to do good, to be rich in good works and generous, sharing what they have. Thus will they build a secure foundation for the future, for receiving that life which is life indeed.”

Unfortunately, most Americans never feel rich. We are always being urged to get more, and that urge ultimately becomes our own. Peter said to Jesus in today’s gospel, “We have given up everything to follow you, Lord.” To give up everything is to say that I no longer have the urge to get more. Jesus tells us, we are on our way to the kingdom, if we have killed within ourselves the urge to have more. However, it is also important for us to realize that Jesus does not necessarily require a complete financial emptying from everyone who would follow him. The gospels present widely and varying demands from Jesus as conditions of discipleship; perhaps, because different people are tempted to place their ultimate trust in different things. For some, the call to discipleship required leaving home and family, for another it was leaving a former vocation, and yet others, following Christ meant abandoning the love for power or wealth.

All that God asks from each of us is that we be willing to give up anything and anyone that would stand between our hearts and God’s heart. There should be nothing more sacred to us than God, Himself. If we can discover that wisdom, we will be truly rich in the only way that ultimately matters.

As the 2^nd reading says: “The Word of God is a two-edged sword; it cuts into our very hearts.” Let us then, allow it to cut open a way into our heart for God to enter there. God is the “good” that can put an end to the harmful urges that burn like hell’s fire in our hearts, and can make us ready for the kingdom of God.