28^th Sunday October 11, 2009

Wisdom 7:7-11 Psalm: 90 Hebrews 4:12-13 Mark 10:17-30

1. I was standing on Yonge Street (Toronto) and asked my friend how to get to Bay Street. (America: standing at Times Square and ask how to get to Grand Central Station). Should I go right or left. Well my friend gave me the whole history and importance of Yonge Street and the financial significance of Bay Street, but at the end I still did not know whether to go right or left!

Our first reading is a praise of Wisdom. It is not the same as intelligence or knowledge. My friend had plenty of the latter, but did not seem to have the Wisdom to know how to use his intelligence. Wisdom is not the same as Common Sense, but comes very close to it. We know that Common Sense is not that common. Since, many do not have Wisdom, we have some very intelligent fools in our midst. This passage (pericope) on Wisdom is similar to the Wisdom that Solomon prays for in 1 Kings 3: 6 -9. It is a prayer for an understanding heart in preference to wealth or victory over one’s enemies. Today it is read as an introduction to the Gospel: the Story of the Rich Young Man.

2. The Rich Man in the Gospel has wealth, and presumably he has the intelligence to acquire this wealth, unless he inherited it. But he seems to lack the Wisdom to put his wealth into perspective.   It is precisely this Wisdom or lack of it that will make him a follower of Jesus. The Rich Man is a good person who practices the laws and traditions of the Jewish people. But he is eager for more. He does not just want life, he wants eternal life.

3. This quest will be the basis of a teaching on the Christian Attitude towards wealth. At first sight it would seem that Riches are bad. It leads to that adage: “Money is the root of all evil.”� But Jesus does not say that.

Our gospel gives us four points to think about: Four C’s. A contradiction or problem, a Counsel, a Challenge and a Catechesis.

a.) The contradiction or problem: A young man comes and says “Good Master what must I do to inherit eternal life.” And Jesus replies why do you call me Good. Therein lies the contradiction: Was Jesus not good? Is Jesus not God? Well in the first place Jesus was a human being like you and me. When someone says to us: “you are good looking, you dress well, you speak so well.’ Instead of examining the statement and wondering if those praises are true, the natural reaction is: What do you want?

This could be so in the case of Jesus, but Jesus was also a devout Jew, and if any praise and glory were to be given, it would be given to God and hence Jesus would say: “Only God is good.”

b) The counsel. Jesus says to the young man, “if you want to be perfect, give all away.   Jesus is not saying riches or possessions are bad. Neither is he saying they are good. For those of you who are familiar with the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius, you will remember the meditation on the Principle and Foundation.

All the things in this world are gifts from God, we   use all these gifts of God, insofar as they help us to develop as loving persons.

So whether we have riches or poverty, sickness or health, we use them “insofar as’ This is an advice, a counsel given by Jesus to the young man, and to us, “if we want to be perfect.”

c) The Challenge. Then Jesus takes it up another notch. He says to the young man, “Sell all, give it to the poor, and come follow me.’ If we want to accept the challenge of Jesus, then this is the non-negotiable condition. It is a “sine qua non’ condition. This is pretty radical, but understandable in the urgency of proclaiming the Kingdom.  

• Jesus had no place to lay his head
• Jesus would not accept any one who put his hand to the plough and looked back
• There was no time to say farewells, or bury the dead.

• d) Finally: a catechesis, a teaching not only to the Young Man but also to all of us. Material things, although neither good or bad, have a tendency to be attractive. We start by possessing things, we end up with being possessed by these things. So although it is not necessary to give up wealth to be a good follower of Jesus, in view of the fact, that in the end we will have to give them up (this is an eschatological teaching) it might be a good practice to start detaching ourselves gradually. After all, none of us has seen a U-haul truck behind a funeral hearse, have we?

• The Egyptians would bury all the riches (and sometimes even wives and slaves) with the Pharaohs.
• For the Greeks: those who died had to cross the river Styx. You had to pay a coin to Charon who took you across the river. You were buried with a coin.
• Now a days, some people in their fantasies and having a lot of money, are buried in their Cadillacs and Rolls Royces, as the last hurrah.

• But Job’s prediction is the only truthful one. I was born naked and so shall I die. I brought nothing into this world and I will take nothing when I die.

4. Giving up riches and wealth is not an end in itself, but a pre-condition to a life of freedom and joy and greater abundance as we follow Jesus. It is a fitting story on a Thanksgiving Weekend, when we thank God for all blessings bestowed.

Children's version.

28^th Sunday October 11, 2009

Wisdom 7:7-11 Psalm: 90 Hebrews 4:12-13 Mark 10:17-30  

1. Let us start with a story: An elderly man sat on the bench of the porch of his house. He had a cup of coffee in his hand. The cars passed, birds tweeted, squirrels ran”“ but he saw or noticed none of it. He had not smiled for a long time. His wife, of 60 some years of marriage, had died.
 

2. Hey mister, said a little child. But he did not hear. Hey mister, - more loudly. Still no reply. Hey Mister, yelled the child. The man jerked away with a start, and the coffee spilt over his trousers. Oh, Oh, said the child, “will your Mommy get mad at you for that?’
 

3. “Mommy?’ said the old man, puzzled.   “You know the lady with the white hair that brings you coffee, and the newspapers, and your pipe. Oh, that is not my Mommy, she is my wife. But she is gone.

Gone where? asked the boy.
 

4. How was the elderly man to explain death. But the boy continued without a pause. “Gone inside, Gone to the store, or far, far away to be with the angels.’ The second said the man slowly and looked once again into the distance.
 

5. The boy nodded his head and without any invitation, climbed into the man’s lap. “You better put the coffee down, I want to hold your hand. And the child held the man’s hand in both of his own.
 

6. Oh, said the boy. We all have small hurts and little hurts. The little hurts are when you fall off the bike and scrape your knee, or when you cannot find a toy. Then you say, Oh darn and act like a man. But the big hurts, like when you are hit by a car, or someone goes away forever, you can cry. It helps.
 

7. How do you know all this? asked the man. Grandpa went away a long time ago. At that time I was four and it hurt. How old are you now, asked the man? Oh said the boy with a big smile and holding our his palm, spreading his fingers. I am five. They sat quietly for a while, they listened to cars and birds and squirrels. Then as typical of a little boy, he squirmed, he twisted. He got off the man’s lap and got on his bike and pedalled away. I will be back said the boy. You do that replied the man.   The man smiled quietly for the first time in a long while.

Everything we have, like the Rich Man in the Gospel has been given to us at some time or another. Sometimes it is a gift from parents and family, sometimes we use our brains and talents (also gifts from God) and get many things: toys, trains, dolls, i-pods, cell-phones, cars, houses”“ even husbands and wives, and children and grandchildren.

We must make sure, that we possess them, and that they don’t possess us. Each thing we own is like a string or a rope that ties us down.

We are in an air-balloon waiting to soar up into heaven, but these strings keep us tied down. We have to bit by bit, cut all these strings that tie us down, until the balloon can take us “up, up and away”

Jesus told the Rich Man to sell all he had and come rise with him. Let go, said Jesus. I cannot said the Rich Man. But you and I know that one day we are going to have to let go of everything. Jesus says, “Come fly with me!’

This Thanksgiving weekend, we thank God for all the gifts we have received especially for food and water, for clothes and a home to stay. We thank God for the gift of spiritual life we received at Baptism. This is the day that the Lord has made let us rejoice and be glad.