Oct. 14, 2012: 28th Sunday in Ordinary B

Have you ever felt in the deep recesses of your heart that something in your life is missing? Have you purchased something or done something out of the ordinary to fill that void? Some people buy cars, clothes, jewelry, and in my case, an infomercial workout video which promised that I would have 6-pack abs and weigh 40 lbs less. I eventually gave the 10-DVD series away, after working out a total of 30 minutes. The young, accomplished and wealthy man in the gospel experiences that inexplicable void in his heart and approaches Jesus. He kneels in front of him in humility and sincerity and asks, "Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?" The void this young man feels is what we sometimes feel as well. We ask, "What is the meaning of life? What is my ultimate aim, and how do I attain it?"

When we approach Jesus with such a request, he sees everything that lies behind our request. He sees the limits of our readiness and he sees the possibility of our walking away from his answer. Sometimes we say, "Be careful what you ask for...Can you handle the truth?" Often we press God for an answer with the question "God, what do you desire of me?" God will always answer our questions; but sometimes we don’t like the answer. Then God will ask us a question, "Are you prepared to say yes?"


The young man in the Gospel gets the answer, but he is not prepared to respond with 'yes.' Jesus first looks at the young man with great love; Jesus
is prepared to give the young man what he truly needs, something that will give him true joy and lasting happiness. Jesus tells 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.”

Selling everything we have does not mean becoming outwardly poor. He means we must become inwardly poor, so that we no longer cling to anything of our own in order to keep everything in us free for what the Lord wants to give us in eternal life. To put this in perspective, in heaven, we will no longer have any desire to find our earthly possession again. What is Jesus offering the young man and us? The freedom to separate ourselves from the very things we have difficulty letting go; freedom from that which hinders us from truly experiencing the freedom in living spiritual poverty. In spiritual poverty,
we discover that our life is not a possession to be defended, but a gift to be shared. This is counterintuitive for us. We believe that void will be filled when we are able to purchase or acquire; but Our Lord is saying that in giving of ourselves that we will be filled. God cannot fill what is already full. The way of living Jesus invites us to is expressed in the First Reading:

I prayed, and prudence was given me;
I pleaded, and the spirit of wisdom came to me.
I preferred God’s Wisdom to scepter and throne,
and deemed riches nothing in comparison with Wisdom, nor did I liken any priceless gem to Wisdom;
because all gold, in view of Wisdom, is a little sand, Beyond health and comeliness I loved Wisdom,
Fill us with your love, O Lord, and we will sing for joy!