ANY FURTHER QUESTIONS, YOUNG FELLOW?
[BREAKING THE BREAD OF GOD’S WORD]
October 11, 2015
28th Sunday OT_B
ANY FURTHER QUESTIONS, YOUNG FELLOW?
The young man of today’s gospel passage sure knows how to do
an interview. He knew the right questions. In fact, he already knew the answer
to his questions. To the question “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” the
Lord had an easy answer: “Simple, young man! … No killing, no bearing false
witness … No stealing … No defrauding …
and (wouldn’t you know it!) Honor your old folks!”
The interviewer was not exactly pleased with the answer that
after all, he knew all along! “I have observed all this from my youth!” “So
what is new?” “Anything else?”
First lesson for the day … and it is all about us, not about
God! Deep inside, we know what is right. Deep in our hearts, we know the
answer. And we know that life is more than just avoiding this or that, or not
doing one thing, and refraining from doing another.
I remember that as a young brother in seminary, during an
outing with young people, I took a cold beer after a long hike in the woods.
Some of the young people, simple as they were, were aghast that I was guzzling
a bottle of beer. You know the line … “Oh, religious brothers who are going to
be priests ought not be drinking beer!” At least one of them was honestly
scandalized.
The Lord must have scandalized not just a few. Judas was
scandalized that Jesus did not frown on the fawning woman who poured expensive
perfume on his feet one fine day. The Lord must have scandalized some more when
he would often hie off to the summer residence of Martha, Mary and Lazarus up
in Bethany, where the air was cooler and the crowds thinner. Jesus must have
occasioned a whole lot of gossip for he wined and dined with the likes of
Zacchaeus, Levi and other unsavory figures that are the equivalent of our
society’s hated Customs and Internal Revenue people!
But yes! The Lord did have a word to say to that young man
who knew the right question but gave the wrong answer: “You lack one thing. Go,
sell, give, come, and follow.”
Fair enough you say? Yes! … until the young man’s face fell
in disbelief and disappointment.
I remember the time when the world was younger. As a
not-quite-twenty-year-old student back then in seminary, I started collecting
favorite books. Those were the days when we were told never to accumulate
things. Some of the younger ones in seminary questioned why I had quite a
number of titles in my possession. But when I had to move some place else and
had to leave my stuff, those same ones who criticized me for keeping too many
titles were the ones who divided the loot among themselves, keeping to
themselves whatever it was they wanted all along.
You see, if you get my drift for today, possessions begin,
not in your pocket or purse, but in your heart. Being rich or poor is not
dictated by the lack – or presence, as the case may be – of a fat wallet or an
overflowing bank account. Being rich or poor begins in the heart – where all
desires are born, where all ambition is grown.
Being rich and poor goes beyond having or lacking. It has to
do with being rich in values and rich in the appreciation of what is available,
while at the same time being poor in things one cannot hope to have, or has no
right to ever have, or one simply cannot get. It has to do with knowing that
there are values and there are values, and one and only one can ever be the
ultimate value, with all the rest as relative values.
The Lord sure knew his onions, so to say. He appreciated
good wine and good food, but he was no slave to the same. He did not even own a
pillow to rest his head on, while foxes had their dens.
Second lesson for us today is this … The Lord reads our
hearts. “Everything is naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must
render an account.” (2nd reading).
Peter missed the lesson, at least initially. He still had the gall to
complain: “We have given up everything and followed you.” And, mind you, Peter
did have something to live on, more than just the average person then.
And this is where the real lesson comes shining through. The
poorest are really those who are enslaved by their desires and covetousness.
The richest are those who are never weighed down and pulled down by whatever
good thing he or she has or can use. The poorest are those who are slaves. The
richest are those who, while having, did not subject all their doing to the
demands of what they owned, or had, or possessed.
The rich are those who can give them up for a higher cause –
that is, for the kingdom.
And we know the rest of the story … they “will receive a
hundred times more now in this present age: houses and brothers and sisters and
mothers and children and land – with persecutions!” – and eternal life in the
world to come!
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