Homily for the 28th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B

 

Wis 7:7-11

Ps 90:12-17

Heb 4:12-13

Mk 10:17-30

 

St. Jude Thaddeus Catholic Church, Burkburnett, TX

St. Paul Catholic Church, Electra, TX

Christ the King Catholic Church, Iowa Park, TX

 

Who here wants to be rich? Who wants to have every good thing they desire? This is a natural human desire for most of us. After all, Adam and Eve had everything they wanted in the Garden of Eden and God promises we will have everything we want when we reach heaven. I suppose the problem is with the question. Perhaps I shouldn’t be asking ‘who wants to be rich’, but rather ‘what are the riches in this life and how do we gain them?’ The Book of Wisdom reveals to us that the actual treasure in this life does not lie in material things, but instead is wisdom – that is, knowing what is really the good, the true, and the beautiful and then choosing to act according to what is good true, and beautiful.

Our Gospel passage today is like a mirror, reflecting back to us our own story of striving to progress along the path of discipleship. The rich young man Jesus met on his way to Jerusalem already had a well-developed faith. We can tell this from how he acted when he encountered the Lord. First, he ran to Jesus, indicating he was readily responding to the Lord’s presence without regard for the opinions of others. In that day and age, running in the streets was considered dishonorable. One just didn’t do that. Second, the young man knelt before Jesus as a sign of honor and reverence. Finally, he addressed the Lord as his ‘Good Teacher,’ indicating his openness to being formed in the Gospel. So far so good! But then the young man asked Jesus “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” This is our sign that something was gravely disordered in the young man’s view of discipleship. The rich young man was seeking to gain eternal life by his own efforts. He worked hard from his youth to keep the commandments of God, but that was not enough. The Ten Commandments are a good start – they teach how to not cause harm to ourselves and to others, but of themselves, they do not teach us about true discipleship. We have to go deeper and Jesus invited the rich young man to go deeper. Jesus looked at the young man in love, knowing he was capable of a greater and more profound level of discipleship, and invited the man to follow Him in a way that reflected His own way of life. Jesus called the young man to let go of his attachments to his earthly treasures – his stuff – to give to the poor, and to engage in a life of radical discipleship. This life of radical discipleship is called stewardship. Jesus is calling each one of us here today to the same radical discipleship.

The young man went away sad because even though he was willing to avoid doing harm to others, he was not able to bring himself to love others as Jesus loved others. He was not willing to put his treasures at the service of the Kingdom of God. This is a challenging story for many of us when we strive to follow the Lord. Like the young man in the story, we do well following the Lord on our own terms, but when He calls us to a sacrificial generosity and to that radical discipleship called stewardship, we frequently falter and stumble. Thankfully, as the Gospel also reminds us, ‘All things are possible for God.’

Admission into the Kingdom of God is not something that can be earned but can only be accepted from Jesus Christ as a gift. What we can do, however, is to dispose ourselves to receive that gift from God. How we properly dispose ourselves and remain open to that gift is by reflecting the values of the Kingdom in all parts of our lives. When we conform our will to God’s will, including letting go of our attachments to our false riches of this passing life, we open ourselves up to receiving the eternal reign of God now and forever.

It is wisdom to understand that all the gifts we have are given to us by God. Further, these gifts were given to us by God to be used for the building of the Kingdom by providing for the poor. Not just those in material poverty, but also those living with the many forms of cultural, intellectual, and religious poverty. Stewardship means using these gifts to collaborate with God and cooperating with Him in His work of redemption. In this parish, that means freely and willingly offering your time, talents, and treasure in the forms of worship, work, and wealth to help us thrive and provide for the many needs of our community. Maybe that means attending one daily Mass in addition to your Sunday obligation or spending one hour a week in adoration before the Blessed Sacrament praying for vocations. Maybe that means volunteering as an usher, a greeter, a lay reader, a cantor, or bringing Holy Communion to the elderly, the sick, and the shut-ins of our parish. Maybe that means seeing some other need in the parish and stepping forward to gather a team to fill that need. What form of stewardship is Jesus Christ inviting you to follow today?

St. Teresa of Calcutta (Mother Teresa) wisely said “True holiness consists in doing God’s will with a smile.”  Let us all joyfully embrace the call to stewardship and be wide open to the gift of the Kingdom of God. Let us be true Christian disciples who receive God’s gifts gratefully, who shares them in love with others, and returns them with increase to the Lord from who they came.

St. Joseph, Servant of Christ and Model for Workers, Pray for Us!