A Homily – The Twenty-eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year B)

First Reading – Wisdom 7:7-11

Responsorial Psalm – Psalm 89(90):12-17

Second Reading – Hebrews 4:12-13

Gospel Acclamation – Matthew 11:25

Alternative Acclamation – Matthew 5:3

The Gospel According to Mark 10:17-30 ©

 

(NJB)

 

Listen!

The wise pray for wisdom, not things, not outcomes; pray for wisdom and you will be graced by it, it is yours…simply in the asking.

Incomparable wisdom, its spirit is ready and our constant aid.

Know this.

God does not intervene in our lives.

God is with us, yes; God speaks to us, always…but not in words. The presence of God’s spirit within us, is drawing us in with a gentle gravity. God dwells within everyone in this same way. The divine spirit within us, is a constitutive element of our being that manifests itself as a desire and longing for God.

God does not interject God’s self into our lives, neither does God determine our choices, nor does manipulate their consequences, either for us or against us.

When we find refuge in the divine, it is a peace we have made for ourselves; we are the actor and God is the facilitator.

God is never angry with us; we do not suffer because God desires to see us suffer, we do not sorrow because it pleases God to see us sorrowful. We were made with these capacities and bound to encounter the world through them so that we may discover the value of each other through them, and with them we are also able to experience joy and become teachers of the way.

When we suffer or are sorrowful, when we cause suffering or sorrow in others, or when we rejoice and are glad; God is with us, feeling what we feel, knowing what we know and going through our experience as we experience it ourselves.

Be mindful.

God is the eternal creator of all that is; and we are but motes of dust in the face of the infinite. We come and we go like dew in the morning, like frost in the desert that vanishes before the sun.

Each of us individually, and the whole of us together are infinitely less than the infinite God, and yet the real presence of God is within us, like a ray of light, originating in time and space and extending beyond their horizon,

Everything that exists, exists within God, and the fullness of God exists within you.

Understand this.

Jesus’ teaching cannot be conducted like a shell game, the way is not a bait and switch, nor is it a long con…though its teaching authority has been abused in these ways since the beginning, as Matthew’s Gospel illustrates.

The way is simple, the teaching of it cannot be controlled or owned by any one group of people.

God, the creator of the universe, God has hidden nothing from us, the truth is an open-secret, it is a s plain as day.

The wise and the powerful, the learned and the clever, the weak and the meek, they all have access to the same truth, to the knowledge of God, the expectation of justice, of assurance of hope, and the joy of love.

Who are the wise and powerful, who are the learned and the clever, who are the faithful and childlike…in every generation you will see a new group labeling the elder group as out of touch, blind, privileged, in the dark, corrupt. It is an endless cycle, but the way remains the same; love justice, be merciful, do good, serve God through the loving service you provide to one another: your family, your friends, your neighbors, the stranger, even your adversary.

Just because a person is wise and powerful, learned and clever, or a child of the church, does not mean they will recognize the truth when they come upon it, or act upon it when they do.

It is not your station in society, it is not how other people regard you, it is not the titles you have earned or the ways that you have been marginalized that give anyone of us the ability to tell how faithfully you will fulfill the calling to follow Jesus when you have decided to accept the call.

What matters is the trueness of your heart, and your willingness to trust in the content of your hope.

Be mindful.

As we all go through life we are forced to navigate countless paradoxes, we encounter them like rapids in a rushing stream. We come through the difficult passage battered but blessed, even when we have broken if we remain in the way we will still be able to delight in the smile of a stranger, in the kindness of our beloved, in the opening of a flower, the smell of bread in the oven or a drink of cool water…and share it.

Consider the Gospel reading for today:

The kingdom of heaven is not a kingdom in the earthly sense, better to see it as a garden wherein we walk with God in friendship.

Jesus is wise to say that no-one is good but God alone, we would all do well to emulate his humility.

Remember.

In the parable of the rich young man, we are never told that he refuses Jesus, we are only told that he goes away sad. The parable does not say that he was sad because he would not do as Jesus asked, it merely says that he goes away sad, it may be that his sorrow is related to the fact that he has been asked to something difficult, he knows it will be hard, but he is determined.

This is the way.

Today’s reading also speaks of an expectation of rewards in heaven for good deeds done in the here and now…this is not the way. The good things we do in the here and no, do not deliver us into eternity, like some kind of pay it forward scheme, but rather, they bring the eternal blessing of the divine into the present moment.

The garden is not beyond time and out of reach, the garden is brought into being through the good things we do on behalf of each other, on behalf of the poor, the marginalized and the needy, everyday

It is only through service to one another that we serve God, through the love that we share here and now we experience the divine.

Therefore, give no thought to what will come in the afterlife, it will be according to God’s plan, and that is surety enough for me.

First Reading – Wisdom 7:7-11

I Esteemed Wisdom More than Sceptres or Thrones

I prayed, and understanding was given me; I entreated, and the spirit of Wisdom came to me.

I esteemed her more than sceptres and thrones; compared with her, I held riches as nothing.

I reckoned no priceless stone to be her peer, for compared with her, all gold is a pinch of sand, and beside her silver ranks as mud.

I loved her more than health or beauty, preferred her to the light, since her radiance never sleeps.

In her company all good things came to me, at her hands riches not to be numbered.

 

Responsorial Psalm – Psalm 89(90):12-17

Let the Lord's Glory Shine Upon Us

In the morning, Lord, you fill us with your love.

Alleluia, alleluia!

Lord, you have been our refuge

  from generation to generation.

Before the mountains were born,

  before earth and heaven were conceived,

  from all time to all time, you are God.

You turn men into dust,

  you say to them “go back, children of men.”

A thousand years in your sight

  are like yesterday, that has passed;

  like a short watch in the night.

When you take them away, they will be nothing but a dream;

  like the grass that sprouts in the morning:

in the morning it grows and flowers,

  in the evening it withers and dries.

For we are made weak by your anger,

  thrown into confusion by your wrath.

you have gazed upon our transgressions;

  the light of your face illuminates our secrets.

All our days vanish in your anger,

  we use up our years in a single breath.

Seventy years are what we have,

  or eighty for the stronger ones;

and most of that is labour and sadness –

  quickly they pass, and we are gone.

Who can comprehend the power of your wrath?

  Who can behold the violence of your anger?

Teach us to reckon our days like this,

  so that our hearts may be led at last to wisdom.

Turn to us, Lord, how long must we wait?

  Let your servants call on you and be answered.

Fill us with your kindness in the morning,

  and we shall rejoice and be glad all the days of our life.

Give us joy for as long as you afflicted us,

  for all the years when we suffered.

Let your servants see your great works,

  and let their children see your glory.

Let the glory of the Lord God be upon us:

  make firm the work of your hands.

  Make firm the work of your hands.

Amen.

Alleluia

 

Second Reading – Hebrews 4:12-13

The Word of God Cuts More Finely than a Double-edged Sword

The word of God is something alive and active: it cuts like any double-edged sword but more finely: it can slip through the place where the soul is divided from the spirit, or joints from the marrow; it can judge the secret emotions and thoughts. No created thing can hide from him; everything is uncovered and open to the eyes of the one to whom we must give account of ourselves.

 

Gospel Acclamation – Matthew 11:25

Alleluia, alleluia!

Blessed are you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, for revealing the mysteries of the kingdom

to mere children.

Alleluia!

 

Alternative Acclamation – Matthew 5:3

Alleluia, alleluia!

How happy are the poor in spirit:

theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Alleluia!

 

The Gospel According to Mark 10:17-30 ©

Give Everything You Own to the Poor, and Follow Me

Jesus was setting out on a journey when a man ran up, knelt before him and put this question to him, ‘Good master, what must I do to inherit eternal life?’ Jesus said to him, ‘Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone. You know the commandments: You must not kill; You must not commit adultery; You must not steal; You must not bring false witness; You must not defraud; Honour your father and mother.’ And he said to him, ‘Master, I have kept all these from my earliest days.’ Jesus looked steadily at him and loved him, and he said, ‘There is one thing you lack. Go and sell everything you own and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.’ But his face fell at these words and he went away sad, for he was a man of great wealth.

Jesus looked round and said to his disciples, ‘How hard it is for those who have riches to enter the kingdom of God!’ The disciples were astounded by these words, but Jesus insisted, ‘My children,’ he said to them ‘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 a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.’ They were more astonished than ever. ‘In that case’ they said to one another ‘who can be saved?’ Jesus gazed at them. ‘For men’ he said ‘it is impossible, but not for God: because everything is possible for God.’

Peter took this up. ‘What about us?’ he asked him. ‘We have left everything and followed you.’ Jesus said, ‘I tell you solemnly, there is no one who has left house, brothers, sisters, father, children or land for my sake and for the sake of the gospel who will not be repaid a hundred times over, houses, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and land – not without persecutions – now in this present time and, in the world to come, eternal life.’

 

A Homily – The Twenty-eigth Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year B)