10 October 2021 Mark 10:17-30
28th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B
One thing Problem
Today’s gospel raises a fundamental question. What shall be the greatest possession of a Christian or what shall be the highest priority of a Christian?
The readings of this Sunday (28th Sunday in ordinary Time, Year B) reminds us of three supposed to be priorities of the life of a disciple; namely, “Divine Wisdom”, “Word of God” and “Eternal life.”
The first reading (Wis. 7:7-11) reminds of the value of Divine Wisdom in comparison to earthly treasures. In comparison to divine wisdom gold is a bit of sand and silver is not more than mud.
Second reading (Heb. 4:12-13) reminds of the importance to make Word of God as the foundation of Christian life and therefore to be made a top priority in life.
Gospel reading (Mk. 10:17-30) reminds of the value of ‘Eternal Life’ in comparison to many possessions.
The man who came to Jesus asking the question what he should do to inherit eternal life is basically a good person in many ways. Firstly, he showed interest in spiritual matters and cared for his soul. It is clear from his question, ‘Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?’ (v.17). Secondly, he had a keen interest to obey commandments. It is clear from his reply, ‘Teacher, of all this I have observed from my youth’ (v.20). (3) Thirdly, his willingness to hear Jesus, ‘….. ‘asked him’ (v.17). (4) Fourthly his humility that he ‘knelt down’ (v.17).
In short, the gospel gives reasons to conclude that the rich man had an upright life, but he was lacking in ONE THING – attachment to his many possessions. Jesus’ gesture of “Looking at him, loved him and said” (v.21) was not a congratulatory look, although Jesus values his upright life. The ‘look of love’ is to open the door of a more deep aspiration. To follow Jesus is not something that could be obtained by the obedience to laws, but he should realize that discipleship is a gift. It is a life of maximum love. It demands detachment to everything of the world to be attached to God. But his top priority of his life was his possessions and not God. Attachment to possessions makes him sad of missing something inevitable, eternal life!
“Lacking in One thing”: Many great leaders of history had stumbled upon the ‘one thing’ in their life. They were otherwise perfect but had failure in life due to ‘one thing’ or the other. For example, King Solomon was a great king well known for his riches, gold, silver, food, wisdom. But he stumbled upon one matter, women. Book of I Kg. tells that he was a womanizer with 700 wives and 300 hundred concubines according to I Kg 11:3. The women turned aside his heart and he ended up as a failure in the sight of Yahweh.
Judas was the brightest and intellectual among the twelve. He was the one who used to organize things for Jesus and his companions (Jn. 13:28, 29). But he stumbled upon one thing, money. He was a stealer and had a passion for money. It made him betray Jesus for thirty silver coins which in turn forced him to end up his life in a big disaster, suicide.
This ‘one thing’- possessions could be different in the life of person to person. “Many Possessions” could mean possession of persons, things or ideologies. For some it may be obsessions with celebrities leading to personality cult. For some others it can be an obsession with certain ideologies like materialism, hedonism etc. For some others it can be hunger for name and fame, desire for success and yet for others it may be greed for wealth and possessions etc. It can be an addiction to gadgets, power, positions, drugs, gambling, cock fights and unfaithful relationships etc.
Albert Einstein in the context of Theory of Relativity he also speaks about Relativity Theory of Wealth -as the wealth of a person increases in that relation his happiness decreases. If ‘Kingdom of God’ – reign of God, becomes the top priority of a Christian, that will be the easiest way to be happy and to ensure eternal life.
Your true possession is not what you possess, but the one who possesses you, God. When God becomes your true possession; Divine wisdom (1st Reading), Word of God (2nd Reading) and Eternal life (Gospel) would become top priorities of your life. Amen.