Monday of Week 8 of Ordinary Time – Gospel

Commentary on Mark 10:17-27

Today we have the story of a rich man, that is, a man who believed he was rich or who believed that in his material wealth was his happiness. He was a well-meaning man and asked Jesus:

Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?

“You know the commandments”, says Jesus and then proceeds to list only those commandments which involve our relations with others, omitting those relating directly to God: not killing; not committing adultery; not stealing; not bearing false witness; not defrauding; respecting parents. And the man responds:

Teacher, I have kept all these since my youth.

He was indeed a good man insofar as he did respect his parents and he did not do any of the sinful things mentioned.

Jesus looked at the man with a real love.  This is not a love of affection or attraction.  It is the love of agape, a love which desires the best possible thing for the other.  This man was good, but Jesus wanted him to be even better.  So he said to him:

You lack one thing; go, sell what you own, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.

On hearing this, the man’s face clouded over. He walked slowly away full of sadness because he was very rich.  Jesus had asked him for the one thing he could not give up. He had asked for the one thing which the man believed showed he was specially blessed by God. The man had not expected this.

After he had gone, Jesus looked at his disciples and said:

How hard it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!

Now it was his disciples’ turn to be alarmed and shocked. The whole tradition of their society at that time believed that wealth was a clear sign of God’s blessings; poverty was a curse from God.

Jesus removes any misunderstanding on their part:

Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.

In other words, quite impossible.  This was really too much for them.  The Apostles:

…were greatly astounded and said to one another, “Then who can be saved?”

If those who have done well in this life cannot be saved, what hope can there be for the losers?  It would take them time to learn the truth of Jesus’ words.  And it is a lesson that many of us Christians still have to learn.

And we might ask, Why is it so difficult for a rich person to enter the Kingdom of God?  Is there something wrong with being rich?  The answer depends on what meaning we give to ‘rich’ and to ‘Kingdom of God’.

A person at a lower economic class level in Europe or the United States may be extremely wealthy with the same resources if living in some African or Asian countries.  Similarly a ‘rich’ peasant in a remote village may live a life that is primitive compared to a family on welfare in Europe.

When Jesus uses the word ‘rich’, he means people who have more, a lot more, than those around them, and especially when many of those do not have enough for their basic needs. For a person to cling to their material goods in such a situation, to enjoy a relatively luxurious standard of living while those around are deficient in food and housing, is in contradiction to everything that Jesus and the Kingdom stand for.

And we need to emphasise that the ‘Kingdom of God’ here is not referring to a future life in ‘heaven’.  Jesus is not saying that a rich person cannot go to heaven.  He is concerned with how the rich person is living now.  The Kingdom is a situation, a set of relationships where truth and integrity, love and compassion and justice and the sharing of goods prevail, where people take care of each other.

The man in the story said that he kept the commandments.  One should notice that, except for one, all are expressed negatively. The man could observe several of them by doing nothing!  Jesus was asking him to do something very positive, namely, to share his prosperity with his brothers and sisters in need—and that he was not prepared to do.  As such, he was not ready for the Kingdom.  He could not be a follower of Jesus.  Nor can anyone else who is in a similar situation.

We might also add that the teaching applies not only to individuals, but to communities and even nations.  There are countries in the world today enjoying very high levels of prosperity with all kinds of consumer luxuries available while a very large proportion of the rest of the world lives mired in poverty, hunger and disease.  It is one of the major scandals of our day.  This is not a Kingdom situation and much of it is caused not by an uncaring God, or natural causes, but by human beings who just refuse to share their surplus wealth.  As has been said, the really rich are those whose needs are the least.

A final reflection.  We may feel that, in our society, we personally could by no stretch of the imagination be called rich and so the story does not apply to us. But we can cling to other things besides money. I might profitably ask myself today if there is anything at all in my life which I would find very difficult to give up if God asked it of me. It might be a relationship, it might be a job or position, or it might be good health.

To be a disciple of Jesus means that he is asking me to follow him unconditionally, without any strings, ready to let go of anything and everything (although he may not actually ask me to do so).  It is the readiness that counts.  The man in the story did not even seem to have that. Should a Catholic be a millionaire?  What do you think?  What do you think Jesus’ answer would be?

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Monday of Week 8 of Ordinary Time – First Reading

Commentary on 1 Peter 1:3-9

Today we begin readings from the First Letter of Peter. According to the St Joseph’s Weekday Missal:

“This letter was most likely written…about 64 AD and sets forth the nature of the Christian life begun in baptism as an experience of regeneration. By their acceptance of Christianity, the Christian communities of Asia Minor had become separated from their pagan countrymen, who were abusing and persecuting them. The apostle instructs his readers that Christianity is the true religion in spite of their trials and sufferings and exhorts them to lead good Christian lives.”

The first three verses of the chapter are not included in the reading, but in them the writer tells us to whom the letter is being addressed.  They include five Roman provinces in Asia Minor and cover most of what is modern Turkey – Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia.

The letter begins in the usual way with a kind of prayer which is full of hope.  In fact, an aura of hope suffuses this whole letter.  In spite of the frequent suffering and persecution mentioned in the letter, hope is such a key thought in it (the word ‘hope’ itself is used here and in 1:13,21 and 3:5,15) that it may be called a letter of hope in the midst of suffering.  Christian hope is not just wishful thinking; it is an utter conviction of what is going to be realised.  Here there is a guarantee of “an inheritance that is imperishable” to which all can look forward with faith and confidence.  The basis of that hope is the resurrection of Jesus, who passed through such terrible suffering and death to life.  Our faith tells us that we can go the same way with him.

This hope leads to the enjoyment of an inheritance, an inheritance that is eternal, one that is being kept in store for us by God.   And we are being made safe, first, by the power of God and, second, by our faith, our total trust and commitment to God.  And this guarantees our salvation, which can be seen in three phases: 1) the salvation that comes when we first believe in Jesus as Lord and Saviour; 2) the continuing process of salvation as we grow in holiness and wholeness; and 3) our ultimately being united face to face with our God and Lord in glory.

In spite of the many trials and tribulations that the Christians are passing through, the writer assures them that there is cause for rejoicing. Such trials test their faith like gold being purified in fire and will make them even more ready to welcome Christ when he comes:

…so that the genuineness of your faith—being more precious than gold that, though perishable, is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.

As precious metals are purified by fire, so our faith is strengthened by the trials we experience in our living it out.  Experience has shown again and again that persecution has been a strong reinforcer of faith in Christians.  Jesus foretold that his followers would constantly face resistance, contempt and persecution. These challenges to our faith are not something to be deliberately sought or provoked, but at the same time, our fortitude in facing them is one of the signs of our commitment to the Kingdom and the Way of the Gospel.  The true believer makes contact with Jesus in every person and every experience they encounter.

Peter, who himself had a personal knowledge of Jesus, is presented here as praising the readers of the letter, who:

Although you have not seen him, you love him, and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him…

It reminds one of the words of Jesus to Thomas after the resurrection:

Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe. (John 20:29)

Through our faith, we are in direct contact with Jesus.  The true believer makes contact with Jesus in every person and every experience.

So, they have reason to “rejoice with an indescribable and glorious joy” because they are achieving the goal of faith – and indeed the goal of life – their salvation.  ‘Salvation’ means much more than ‘going to heaven’ after we die.  It implies a restoration of our fragile and weak lives to complete wholeness, and in being totally reunited in joy and peace with him from whom we came – God our Creator.  And it begins in this life on earth.

Joy and consolation should be the over-riding experience of the committed follower of Jesus.  This joy and consolation is not taken away by our experience of hardships, testings and disappointments in our lives…quite the contrary. If that joy is not the deeper part of our Christian experience, then we need to look further for the cause.

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