INTRODUCTION
What is our idol? What is our wealth? What is it that we cannot let go? What are the things possessing us such that we have become prisoners of them, and by consequence going against the first commandment that seeks for unconditional priority to God? Why do we walk away sad? Those who have attained detachment towards worldly possessions will never walk away sad. Even if part of what they have or even the whole of it be sacrificed for the sake of Christ. With St. Paul we learn that we can actually wave aside whatever we possess. But this is only possible if we have made Christ our everything: “…but what were once my assets I now through Christ Jesus count as losses. Yes I will go further: because of the supreme advantage of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, I count everything else as loss. For him I have accepted the loss of all other things, and I look on them all as filth if only I can gain Christ and be given a place in him…” (Philippians 3:8-9).
FIRST READING: Wisdom 7:7-14
The book of Wisdom was addressed to a Jewish minority in Alexandria, Egypt to foster their faith in God against their growing tendency and temptation of adopting Greek philosophies and morality. In the mind of the hagiographer, the ‘Wisdom’ goes beyond worldly wisdom. It is a transcendental wisdom meant to stir the heart of people to adhere to the tradition of their fathers. It is the Wisdom innate in the Law. It is the wisdom that comes from God himself. The passage of the reading of today quotes King Solomon’s personal valuation of Wisdom. It explains how the king held wisdom in a high esteem: “I preferred her (true wisdom) to scepter and throne and deemed riches nothing in comparison with her.” This is eternal wisdom. To possess it is to possess God and to possess God is to possess everything. The wisdom of the world is impure, partial, insincere, selfish and by consequence, ungodly. It teaches the world how to be successful by making selfish choices that exploit the other. On the contrary, Divine wisdom teaches us how to live wisely and successfully in life, making wise choices. Thus, we are invited to see Jesus as the “Wisdom Incarnate” and to give him priority over everything else in life.
The Psalmist (Ps 90) brings us in contact with God through the prayer of supplication, begging God for the gift of wisdom that teaches those who possess it how to make godly judgments and choices in life so that they may live with Him forever.
SECOND READING: Hebrew 4:12-13
The holy writer tells his community that,“The word of God is something alive and active: it cuts like any double-edged sword.” The living and effective word of God has the power to penetrate into our body and soul like a double-edge sword. We should allow the word of God in all its vital power and effectiveness to challenge us and our priorities and goals in life. The sharp word of God confronts, chastises, encourages, challenges, nourishes, and inspires all who will attend it. Like a double-edge sword, the word has the dual capacity of revealing God to the believer and revealing the believer to him/herself. 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!
GOSPEL: Mark 10:17-30
The belief in resurrection and eternal life was a relatively recent development in Jewish thought at Jesus’ time, and it wasn’t shared by everyone. The Pharisees taught that there would be a resurrection from the dead; the Sadducees did not share this belief. Jesus taught that there would be a final judgment for everyone and eternal life (the Kingdom of God) for believers.
Jesus makes two requirements of the wealthy man who approaches him. First, he must give up his possessions. Throughout history, some Christians have taken this literally. Their example witnesses to us a radical commitment to the Gospel of Jesus. Some have read this as a particular requirement directed to this specific individual. Still others have sought to explain the meaning intended by the word possessions as those things that prevent one from following Jesus. Christians have generally understood that at the least, following Jesus requires that believers hold material possessions loosely and remain vigilant against seeking security in accumulating possessions.
The second requirement Jesus makes of this man is the invitation that Jesus extends to all would-be disciples: “follow me.” Jesus very much wants this man to be his disciple. We believe that the Christian faith is one in which each believer is in a personal relationship with Jesus. Just as this Gospel tells us that Jesus loves the man and is sad when he departs, so too, Jesus loves us and is saddened when we are unable to follow him (Loyola press). And just like he told the young man, “you lack one thing; go, sell what you have, and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me”, so also does He tell us who are often driven to radical quest for possession in a consumerist society. In order to be a disciple of Jesus, we must be ready to make a radical decision that will certainly affect our love for whatever we hold dear. We cannot claim to love God while we remain indifferent to the needs of others. It implies getting involved actively in whatever concerns the other. It is sometimes a difficult path to walk, but we must surely walk on it because there is no shortcut to the kingdom except by openess to the love and service of the others with whatever we possess. Like the young man, many of us think that we can possess the kingdom of God by fulfilling the demands of the laws, probably by attending masses regularly, partaking in the sacraments, observing holy days of obligation, paying tithes etc. The kingdom of God is not all about the dos and the don’ts but must include the omissions. The young man was obedient to the dictates of the law yet he was found wanting. He had a strong spirit of attachment to his material possessions to the point that they became idols for him. And by consequence he could not be justified and qualified for the kingdom of God. He had great difficulty in understanding that the kingdom of God he sought for could not be gained without possessing the spirit of human brotherhood. He proved himself insensitive to the needs of others. At the end he opted to stick to his “great riches” instead of heeding to the Word that leads to the eternal life he was seeking for. Isn’t that emblematic of how selfish we might be sometimes? We want to possess the kingdom of God which is the highest treasure (everlasting treasure) we can ever think of, yet we are not ready to let go of the corruptible treasure we have here on earth. The problem of the young man and our problem is not the fact of having wealth, but our ungodly attitude towards wealth. In the philosophy of God, our wealth is meant to be shared and not to be stored up for ourselves because in actual sense it does not belong to us. It belongs to God, and we are only stewards. To really obtain heaven, we must realize that our following of Jesus has to be totally and absolutely unconditional. We must be free from any worldly attachment that renders us slaves. Our attachment may not necessarily be to money or material goods. It could be attachment to persons, power and position, job, health, or even our reputation. We may equally have other obstacles to our true happiness and peace such as, anger, holding grudges, alcohol, drugs, lust, apathy, lies, unfaithfulness, theft, or fraud. Let us invite God into our lives today 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 by cutting off any form of attachment in order to become true Christian disciples, sharing our blessings with others. (In consonace with Fr Tony Kadavil).
PRAYER
Heavenly Father, we thank You for the grace of your word. It is a life-giving word. Grant us the gift of the wisdom of the heart that enables us to discern on the choices we make in life and be able to choose You above all things else, so that following You, we may come to that eternal inheritance You have prepared for us before the world began. Through our Lord Jesus Christ your Son, who lives and reigns with You and the Holy Spirit, God forever and ever. Amen.
PAX VOBIS!
