Homily for the 28th Sunday of Ordinary Time, Oct. 10, 2021. Letter to the Hebrews 4:12-13; Gospel of St. Mark 10:17-27. Theme: He Went Away Sad...
In today’s Gospel a young man who has made his way up in the world asks Jesus a question that I think we all have deep within us, whether we word it in the same way or not: “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” The first part of Jesus’ answer is clear and direct, “Keep the commandments.” This is advice he gives to all of us in general because the commandments are our common pathway to living with God. But we’re not all the same and so the second part of Christ’s answer is tailor-made for each one of us, just as it was for that rich young man.
He was living a basically good life. According to the ancient Jewish way of looking at things he was doubly blessed since he was both wealthy and religious. And yet something was holding him back. Jesus was able to look into his heart to see what that “something” was. He told him that he was lacking in one thing, and that “one thing” was interior freedom. He had paralyzed himself in a lifestyle of prestige and position, and was unable to hear the Lord calling him to a different way of living, a new way of looking at life. He was possessed by his possessions. They held him so tightly bound to planet Earth that he just couldn’t let go and follow Christ to the Kingdom of God.
We each need courage and trust to come before Jesus and ask him what more we need to do to grow and develop in our own relationship with God. Through gut-honest prayer we each need to ask Him to look at us, to look within us, and to tell us what it is that is holding us hostage. Jesus will open our minds to see who we really are inside and enable us to identify what is taking the Lord’s place of honor in our hearts. We each have something that holds us back, that stands in our way of true discipleship. The key that will unlock our chains is to identify whatever this might be and then stake steps to deal with it.
Maybe it isn’t money or possessions like it was that young man. Maybe it’s pride, lust or arrogance; maybe it is envy or a hurt that we refuse to forgive, a memory that we just won’t let go of. Maybe we’re in a wrong relationship or caught up in some destructive behavior that we don’t feel strong enough to break out of. Or could it be a fear that if really live our relationship with Christ we’ll lose someone or something that we are desperately clinging on to? Yet if we truly yearn for eternal life, then we need to honestly take this kind of a personal inventory and ask ourselves: what is it that keeps me from giving myself completely to Christ? What is holding me back?
The description of the Word of God in today’s second reading from the Letter to the Hebrews can help us with our personal diagnosis and its remedy. It reminds us that Scripture is like a two-edged sword that can perform spiritual surgery and cut out whatever is infecting our full following of Jesus. This is why Pope Francis constantly reminds us to read at least a small portion of the Gospels daily. He knows that God’s Word has the power to penetrate into our hearts, to dig deep into our consciences, and to root out whatever it finds there that does not belong to Christ. Like any medicine, however, it works over time and so must be taken in daily dosages. But if we persevere in this spiritual treatment, we will indeed experience gradual healing and find ourselves becoming more and more free.
Jesus had offered the rich young man a pathway to freedom, but he preferred the familiar security of his chains. He preferred an existence of temporary happiness to that of eternal joy. He couldn’t let go of the gold in his hand, so to speak, in order to grasp the hand of his Lord. And so, he went away sad. Let’s not be like that. Let's not walk away from Jesus sad because we can't let go. Let’s drop whatever holds us back and take Jesus’ hand and follow Him, so that He can lead us through life - with all its ups and downs - and finally bring us to the joy of eternal life in the Kingdom of Heaven.
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