28TH SUNDAY HOMILY OF ORDINARY TIME — YEAR B

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28TH SUNDAY HOMILY OF ORDINARY TIME — YEAR B

HOMILY THEME: EVERLASTING WEALTH 

BY: Fr. Mike Olumba

Wisdom 7:7-11; Psalm 90:12-13.14.15.16-17 (R.14); Hebrews 4:12-13; Mark 10:17-30

At Sinai the people of Israel were called to a profound freedom, which is the foundation of authentic man. In fact, throughout her history, Israel has never ceased to forget this call, seeking her happiness rather in false security. She found only disillusionment and chimeras. In the middle of the 1st century, a cultured Jew meditating on the history of his people recognised the only true wealth: He realised that it is wisdom, the reflection of God himself. The passage from the first reading read today is part of this reflection and discovery.

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In the New Testament, this wisdom was personified. St. Paul reveals to us that Jesus is the wisdom of God (1 Corinthians 1:18-2:16; cf. 1 Corinthians. 1:24), the Verb made flesh according to St. John (1:1-18) who become a concrete person.

In the gospel, a young man encounters this Wisdom of God personified. Looking at this young man, Jesus recognised him as a rich man perhaps by the nature or appearance of his dress, or the rings he wore on his fingers as the rich Jews were accustomed to do then. It could also be by the servants surrounding him but perhaps not mentioned in the story.

In the attitude of the young rich man in the gospel, the contradictions of so many men and women eager for perfection, but not willing to renounce their desires & their too earthly attachments are well shown and exposed. This attitude can be clearly seen in the discussion between Jesus and this young man. Here is a man of desire: he expresses this ageless hunger, the most irremovable and enduring hunger in the hearts of all: the desire for unending life.

A man without a name; he could be any of us. He seeks life. The man who comes before Jesus is a man full of good will, who would like to do more than simply fulfilling the Law, which he did since his youth. Jesus looks at him with love and benevolence knowing that he was telling the truth.

Since he would like to do more so as to achieve perfection, Jesus invites him to follow him. But to follow Jesus requires taking with him a path of detachment followed by the leap of faith.

When he said that he had been following all these commandments since his youth, he was not lying. He was telling the truth.

As a doctor of soul and of body, Jesus sees that there are things that were wrong in the life of this young man in spite of the apparent successful life that everyone sees: There is a god, another god in his life in the form of his assets, wealth and possessions. He may not have an altar for these, but he “worshipped” them. They were certainly taking in his life the place meant for God.

For this man, it goes without saying that eternal life is at the end of a virtuous existence and exercises. He always kept the commandments enumerated by Jesus which, on the second table of the Law, concern the neighbour. Here he is, without him knowing it, in good condition, not to “make his salvation”, but to let God realise it in him, because this man still lacks something, and even he lacks the most essential.

For Jesus, we have not given anything to God if we are not ready to give everything to him, and Jesus calls us to do so: “Love God, to the exclusion of all idols. This is what the bottom line of the first table of the Law is. This is what you still lack!” It is the total gift of self that is concretised in the precise and particular call addressed to this man: “Go, sell all your goods: Come, follow me!” It is no longer a question of morality, nor of asceticism, but of total detachment from one’s possessions in order to be able to attach oneself to Jesus in this project which sets us on the path towards the exclusive love of God.

Each sickness or disease has its own ways of treatment. Sometimes this requires the simple taking of a drug, or an obligatory rest and everything will be back to normal. Sometimes this can require heavy treatment with drugs, therapy or radiation that runs for weeks, months or years. Sometimes this may require a light surgery. Sometimes it may still require surgery up to the extent of cutting off an arm or a leg depending on the nature of the sickness/disease in question and what part of the body is affected.

Jesus found that for this man to be saved there is no other way out except the cutting off of the bond between him and his wealth/possessions because his wealth/possessions have become for him another “god” demanding the same dedication as the true God in heaven. Left to continue with his wealth/possessions especially seeing that he truly desires to make it to heaven, Jesus the WORD of God itself, seeing deeper than any human eye can see, saw the need for this extraordinary chirurgical intervention without which the man will suffer eternal damnation. That is why this particular call addressed to this particular man is so precise, so particular and so radical. It is a call that is not addressed to everyone else but a necessary call for the salvation of this rich young man in particular in view of his own situation and case. It is not for everyone that goes to the hospital and for every sickness that the doctor recommends the amputation of a part of the body. NO! Thus, the call to give up one’s wealth or sell one’s possession is not for everyone.
-If we Christians are all obliged to sell our possessions and give up our wealth, then no Christian should be right buy them.
-If we Christians are all obliged to sell our possessions and give up our wealth, from where then should money for the Church’s’ charity work come from?
Thus, we are not all called to sell our possessions or give up our wealth.

(-If Joseph of Arimathea had sold all his property, he would not have enough to buy a tomb cut out of stone where he deposited the body of Jesus.
If Jesus’ rich friend had sold all his possessions, he would not have an upstairs room large enough for Jesus’ last supper.
-If the women who followed Jesus had sold all their possessions and given up their wealth, they would have had nothing to help Jesus and his disciples at the appointed time.
-If Lazarus with his sisters sold their house, they would have had no place to offer Jesus a welcome each time he came there to visit, rest and get away from the worries and bustles of the ministry.
-If the Roman Centurion who was a Benefactor/Good-doer to the Jews had sold all his possessions and given up his wealth, he would not have had anything with which to build a synagogue for the Jews).

But what would have happened to this man if he never appeared before Jesus that day; perhaps, this disconcerting demand would not have being made of him by Jesus? Really? He would have nothing to gain in any case. He was like the one who goes to a doctor for a routine medical examination/check up only to discover during this visit, thanks to the medical examination conducted by the doctor, that he has a serious illness that would have killed him anyway sooner or later if he did not come today to see the doctor for examination and then treatment. I would say that he was rather lucky for coming that day. O nwere good luck!

To be available, and to be saved, Jesus shows us that sometimes as individuals, we must be ready, willing and able to renounce certain things, even good and excellent things for the sake of heaven.
-Perhaps giving up a rewarding and promising professional career could be one of such..
-Giving up why not, the security of a known and reassuring environment to accept to go far away from home, where God calls us to go.
-To renounce oneself and one’s comfort in order to live only for God and for the place to which He sends us.

But for my salvation; for your salvation: what must we renounce? Each of us has certainly something that he or she must renounce, lest they take the place of God in our hearts and in our lives. Giving a part out of our wealth and possession to the poor or for charity works is also part of the detachment to which we are called.

May the Lord teach us to move from a morality in search of perfection to the logic of faith that gives meaning rather to our morality!
May the Lord teach us to no longer take ourselves as the centre of the world but to choose the life following the Gospel in obedience to the call from Jesus!
In this way, we can trust and leave our salvation in God’s hand; God for whom everything is possible because this is the Good News. -Amen

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