Deacon Tom Anthony

Twenty-eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 143

Reading 1 Wis 7:7-11

I prayed, and prudence was given me;
I pleaded, and the spirit of wisdom came to me.
I preferred her to scepter and throne,
and deemed riches nothing in comparison with her,
nor did I liken any priceless gem to her;
because all gold, in view of her, is a little sand,
and before her, silver is to be accounted mire.
Beyond health and comeliness I loved her,
and I chose to have her rather than the light,
because the splendor of her never yields to sleep.
Yet all good things together came to me in her company,
and countless riches at her hands.

Responsorial Psalm Ps 90:12-13, 14-15, 16-17

R. (14) Fill us with your love, O Lord, and we will sing for joy!
Teach us to number our days aright,
that we may gain wisdom of heart.
Return, O LORD! How long?
Have pity on your servants!
R. Fill us with your love, O Lord, and we will sing for joy!
Fill us at daybreak with your kindness,
that we may shout for joy and gladness all our days.
Make us glad, for the days when you afflicted us,
for the years when we saw evil.
R. Fill us with your love, O Lord, and we will sing for joy!
Let your work be seen by your servants
and your glory by their children;
and may the gracious care of the LORD our God be ours;
prosper the work of our hands for us!
Prosper the work of our hands!
R. Fill us with your love, O Lord, and we will sing for joy!

Reading 2 Heb 4:12-13

Brothers and sisters:
Indeed the word of God is living and effective,
sharper than any two-edged sword,
penetrating even between soul and spirit, joints and marrow,
and able to discern reflections and thoughts of the heart.
No creature is concealed from him,
but everything is naked and exposed to the eyes of him
to whom we must render an account.

Alleluia Mt 5:3

R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Blessed are the poor in spirit,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.

Gospel Mk 10:17-30

As Jesus was setting out on a journey, a man ran up,
knelt down before him, and asked him,
"Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?"
Jesus answered him, "Why do you call me good?
No one is good but God alone.
You know the commandments: You shall not kill;
you shall not commit adultery;
you shall not steal;
you shall not bear false witness;
you shall not defraud;
honor your father and your mother."
He replied and said to him,
"Teacher, all of these I have observed from my youth."
Jesus, looking at him, loved him and said to him,
"You are lacking in one thing.
Go, sell what you have, and give to the poor
and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me."
At that statement his face fell,
and he went away sad, for he had many possessions.

Jesus looked around and said to his disciples,
"How hard it is for those who have wealth
to enter the kingdom of God!"
The disciples were amazed at his words.
So Jesus again said to them in reply,
"Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God!
It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle
than for one who is rich to enter the kingdom of God."
They were exceedingly astonished and said among themselves,
"Then who can be saved?"
Jesus looked at them and said,
"For human beings it is impossible, but not for God.
All things are possible for God."
Peter began to say to him,
"We have given up everything and followed you."
Jesus said, "Amen, I say to you,
there is no one who has given up house or brothers or sisters
or mother or father or children or lands
for my sake and for the sake of the gospel
who will not receive a hundred times more now in this present age:
houses and brothers and sisters
and mothers and children and lands,
with persecutions, and eternal life in the age to come."

MY BROTHERS AND SISTERS,

The world offers a lot to us. There are so many choices that can bring us excitement, stimulation, entertainment, and temporary happiness. Sometimes, the reactions from our pleasure senses cause us to want more and more until we cannot think of anything else but what we are pursuing at that given moment. We then find ourselves chasing after  things that make us happy and satisfy us. A selfishness develops where we put ourselves first above the concerns and needs of those closest to us: our family and friends. When this happens, we then lie to ourselves and justify what we are doing. Our pride slowly buries our nagging conscious that tells us what we are doing just might be wrong.

To make matters worse, these choices might encompass things that the majority of people deem acceptable: The pursuit of a comfortable lifestyle or a career where one could be respected and recognized. This can present a hidden danger where the ragged quest of one’s goals and aspirations can be made a major priority while the needs and wants of family and loved ones goes unnoticed. The physical world has been known to swallow people whole while spirituality and a relationship with God suffer. This can leave a person broken and unfulfilled. The intention of God was us to have a loving relationship with Him. A focus on things other than Him or a focus that does not include Him makes it impossible to do so.

Jesus makes this point in the Gospel Reading today. The rich man followed the teachings of Sacred Scripture and The Law but did it out of obligation and not love. He was deterred from a real relationship with God by the wealth that he had and the priorities he had set forth in his life. His wealth and pursuit of materialism came first. Ultimately, he was saddened because he refused to give these up even in the presence of Jesus Christ. What he had in the material sense blinded him to what he could have through Jesus Christ. Jesus knew this and was saddened because of this. He loved him anyway but knew that the rich man could not love Him in return. We are all challenged in this way but it is also comforting to know that Jesus loves us in our brokenness and is waiting for us to clear away all of those material obstacles which prevents us from running to Him and loving Him as much as He loves us.

Foregoing everything and putting Jesus first in our lives has an immediate effect on ourselves spiritually and also puts us on a path of to even greater things through Him. When we pray to Him, He listens. When we are open to His presence, He then can embrace us fully. When this happens, our relationship becomes stronger and we are then receivers of all of the good things that come from it. We become united to Him, His love, and His creation. There is a definite difference from being separated from the one who created us and His creation and being united completely to Him and it. This difference can be seen and experienced only when we become open to it for we were the ones that closed the pathway to it in the first place.

God has always been there and His promise is that He will always be. He knows all of our thoughts and all of our struggles. It is His desire to participate in our lives and for us to participate in a relationship with Him. Through the Holy Spirit, the love of God, He reaches out to us. Through prayer we can reach out to Him and together a bond is formed which can never be broken unless we want it to be. From this state, the truth of everything can be revealed through the perspective of how God intended everything to be. The question put forth to us is do we want to surrender to Him and accept His will over ours?

Deacon Tom