The Twenty Eighth Sunday of Ordinary Time
Mark 10:17-30
Dear Friends,
Right after my ordination in 1962, a very good friend, Bob, gave me a challenge. He asked me to talk to his sister and guide her back to the Church. She had become an Evangelical and he was heart-broken about it. I was sure it would be easy after my many years of study in the seminary.
I was a complete failure. Only slowly, over the next several years, did I begin to realize my very clear shortcomings.
Bob’s sister, Margie, found a great attraction in the Evangelical message. It stressed the power of the Scriptures and a personal relationship to Jesus. I was locked into a pre-Vatican II theology that stressed an institutional Church as the source of salvation.
Since Vatican II, we have been invited to see the main task of the Church as evangelization. We need to continually recall that the heart of our faith will always be the same: the God who revealed his immense love in the crucified and risen Christ. All evangelization is about the call to have a personal relationship with Jesus. This comes before, during and after all other catechesis and study. We need a personal encounter with Jesus that touches us at the deepest part of our being.
In today’s Gospel story of the rich man, Jesus is inviting the man to focus his attention not so much on what he has to do, but to realize the goodness and generosity of God. The text has the incredibly beautiful statement, “Jesus, looking at him, loved him.” (Mk 10:21) The man did not see this love nor did he experience it because he was letting his personal belongings blind him to Jesus invitation to trust in him rather than his personal wealth. “At that statement he went away sad, for he had many possessions.” (Mk 10:22)
What was it that he possessed? Not a car, maybe a donkey or two. If he was really rich, a horse. Two or three robes at best but K-Mart was wildly beyond his wardrobe dreams. No doctor, primitive medicine. Probably he could not read or write, and no TV, movies or newspaper not to mention a cell phone. No electricity or running water. He challenges the imagination to identify the level of poverty compared to our ordinary lifestyle common today. For these pitifully few things that he thought made him rich, he was unable to let go to follow Jesus. It is a good mirror for us. Our possessions are equally feeble compared to what Jesus has to offer us.
This is why we have to start out with a personal relationship with Jesus first and foremost. We need to realize we are loved. Without love, we too will walk away with the illusion of our wealth as our real security. However, if we open our heart to Jesus, we can begin the journey of gradually realizing that all our riches are in Jesus. In the end, all else will pass away, but Jesus’ love will never change.
The disciples were men of their times. They accepted the pervasive belief that wealth was a true sign of God’s blessing. When Jesus offered the radical message that wealth was an obstacle to the kingdom, it was just another shocking and challenging teaching of Jesus for the disciples. It added to the profound confusion that was part of both their growing attraction and steady bewilderment with Jesus. It was just another item on the list that laid out the cost of walking with Jesus.
They witnessed the rich man walking away sad and despondent. He had rejected Jesus’ love. His choice was to find security and life in his possessions.
Deep down, beyond their fear and uncertainty, Jesus’ followers had a hope in his invitation to let go and let God. Their relationship with Jesus, even in the early and fragile stage, let them see their hunger for freedom and happiness as the gift Jesus was calling them to. This was life in the kingdom where they slowly came to see that they were loved. They were beginning to move way beyond the dos and don’ts of their religious obligations.
The disciples were broken men. They shared all the bewilderment, fears and hunger for security as the rich man who had rejected Jesus’ love. There was a simple difference. They let go of their clinging in order to choose Jesus. We are called to grow into this same choice in the midst of our own doubts and fears. It is so much easier to make this choice of Jesus if we realize the wonderous gift of his love for us. He calls each of us by name into the marvel of everlasting life in the kingdom.
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