Word to the Wise
Sunday, October 15, 2006 - 28th Sunday in Ordinary Time
[Wisdom 7:7-11; Hebrews 4:12-13; Mark 10:17-30]"Good teacher, what must I do to earn eternal life?"
The incident reported in the gospel scripture for this Sunday is a familiar one. We have a man who has tried to live a good life and yet feels that something is missing. He askes Jesus what that might be. Jesus tells him that it is all the material wealth that he has. This is a paradoxical answer since the culture of Jesus' time considered material prosperity to be a blessing from God. That explains the perplexity experienced by the disciples and why the man goes away sad. On two different levels the man is confused. He seems to think he can "earn" eternal life. He can't. His material possessions may have come to him as a result of his own efforts, but eternal life is a gift. He is also confused because it is difficult to think of a blessing as a curse! One is tempted to say to the poor guy, "Get yourself a good spiritual director!" All of us have times when we ask God, "What do you want me to DO?" God's response might be "Give up DOING!" As the man in the story discovers, it can be surprising (dangerous?) to ask God what God thinks about something! Jesus' advice to sell all and give it to the poor might stand a chance with the guy since giving alms was part of the duty of a pious Jew. But the advice to "come follow me" as a result of that self-divestiture may mean further sacrifices down the line. We're not talking about entering religious life, even if that IS one response. It's a matter of asking what is the "more" that is missing. The guy in the story does not appear to be willing to take the chance. Just in case, Peter asks (in the longer version) what IS going to happen to all who "have given up everything and followed you?" Jesus promises "a hundred times more now in the present age......with persecutions and eternal life in the age to come." In our secular and empirical culture, this will send a lot of people away sad because they have many "possessions." But the "more" means putting Jesus first, ahead of lifestyle. It can be sobering to ask what we are "attached to" and discover that some things we consider a blessing (mostly material things, but the occasional relationship) are actually a "curse." The discovery may be the best thing that ever happens to us. AMEN
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