BIBLE STUDY #110


TWENTY EIGHTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

OCTOBER 14, 2012



Reading 1

Wisdom 7:7-11



I prayed, and prudence was given me;

I pleaded, and the spirit of wisdom came to me.

I preferred her to scepter and throne,

and deemed riches nothing in comparison with her,

nor did I liken any priceless gem to her;

because all gold, in view of her, is a little sand,

and before her, silver is to be accounted mire.

Beyond health and comeliness I loved her,

and I chose to have her rather than the light,

because the splendor of her never yields to sleep.

Yet all good things together came to me in her company,

and countless riches at her hands.



The Word of the Lord



Reading 2

Hebrews 4:12-13



Brothers and sisters:

Indeed the word of God is living and effective,

sharper than any two-edged sword,

penetrating even between soul and spirit, joints and marrow,

and able to discern reflections and thoughts of the heart.

No creature is concealed from him,

but everything is naked and exposed to the eyes of him

to whom we must render an account.



The Word of the Lord



Gospel

Mark 10:17-30



As Jesus was setting out on a journey, a man ran up,

knelt down before him, and asked him,

"Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?"

Jesus answered him, "Why do you call me good?

No one is good but God alone.

You know the commandments: You shall not kill;

you shall not commit adultery;

you shall not steal;

you shall not bear false witness;

you shall not defraud;

honor your father and your mother."

He replied and said to him,

"Teacher, all of these I have observed from my youth."

Jesus, looking at him, loved him and said to 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."

At that statement his face fell,

and he went away sad, for he had many possessions.



Jesus looked around and said to his disciples,

"How hard it is for those who have wealth

to enter the kingdom of God!"

The disciples were amazed at his words.

So Jesus again said to them in reply,

"Children, 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 one who is rich to enter the kingdom of God."

They were exceedingly astonished and said among themselves,

"Then who can be saved?"

Jesus looked at them and said,

"For human beings it is impossible, but not for God.

All things are possible for God."

Peter began to say to him,

"We have given up everything and followed you."

Jesus said, "Amen, I say to you,

there is no one who has given up house or brothers or sisters

or mother or father or children or lands

for my sake and for the sake of the gospel

who will not receive a hundred times more now in this present age:

houses and brothers and sisters

and mothers and children and lands,

with persecutions, and eternal life in the age to come."



The Gospel of the Lord



Reflection



Mark keeps the journey motif here – Jesus is on his way to Jerusalem where he will undergo his passion and death. During the journey, a man knelt before him and asked him an important question, "Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?" This man seems to be sincere in his wanting to know. He seems like a lot of religious people who speak to a person they consider holy to get their ideas concerning salvation. We do it, also. He seems interested in learning so he can be saved.



Jesus gets upset at being called good. Does he consider it insincere flattery? Or is he just deflecting all praise to his Father?



Jesus response to the man’s question is to say to him, “You know the commandments,” and then lists some of them, assuming that this man knows and keeps the commandments. These commandments come from the second part of the Decalogue concerning our relationship with others.



I’d bet that this man thought that was all he needed to do and probably responded to Jesus with anticipation and joy, “Teacher, all of these I have observed from my youth."



Jesus has a big surprise for 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." He invites this rich man to put away all worldly things so he won’t be distracted from his mission to spread the Good News and to follow him. Lacking material possessions, he will be free to devote himself to the Gospel.



This rich man was so attached to all his many possessions that he just walked away. Why didn’t he ask Jesus what he meant by that? Jesus didn’t ask everyone to give up everything; in the story of Zacchaeus (Luke 19:1-10), Zacchaeus was a rich man who promised to give half of his money to the poor, “and if I have extorted anything from anyone I shall repay it 4 times over ( Luke 19:8). Jesus’ response? “Today salvation has come to this house.” (Luke 19:9). Jesus is not against possessions, he is against greed and attachment to worldly goods; he is against those who won’t share with those in need.



It is hard for those with wealth to enter the Kingdom. The accumulation and retention of wealth can become more important than making God’s kingdom the focus of our lives. Worldly goods become more important than heavenly treasures. We always find time for what is important in our lives. If God is important, we will find time, even if we work long hours or 2 jobs to support our families. We can always find time for God if we want to.



Do you remember the movie “The Mission?” Robert DeNiro is one of the stars of this movie set in Brazil in the 17th century (I think, I don’t remember exactly). He is a soldier who converts to Catholicism and joins the Jesuit community, but he finds it hard to completely give up his old ways. There is a very poignant scene where we see DeNiro (I forget the name of his character) trying to climb a steep and high hill carrying a large canvas bag that contains all of his soldierly equipment (rifle, sword, armor, and the like). Every time he nears the peak of the hill, he inadvertently drops the bag and has to climb down to get it and then climb back up. Eventually, someone cuts the cord on the bag and it falls all the way down and that person helps DeNiro to the top.



There are things that keep us from the kingdom but we don’t want to let them go. It could be money, possessions, power, prestige, past hurts (both done to us and things we’ve done to others), regrets, reluctance to forgive, or things for which we won’t forgive ourselves, for example. They drag us down. Like the rich man, we turn away from the kingdom because we won’t let these things go. We need to pray for God’s grace to drop these things and get over the top.



The word translated as camel is kamelos. Some scholars suggest that the phrase “a camel to pass through the eye of a needle” refers to the architecture of the walls surrounding Jerusalem. There were several gates in these walls, and some were so small that to get a camel through, one would have to unload everything off the wall and the camel would have to slowly shimmy through, and it still wasn’t guaranteed to make it through.



Other scholars suggest that kamelos is an error in the manuscript and it should be kamilos, a rope or cable. It would indeed be difficult to thread a cable through the eye of a needle. Either way, it illustrates how hard it is for rich person to enter the kingdom. But, all is not lost: "For human beings it is impossible, but not for God. All things are possible for God." That is our hope. Not just for the rich, but for all of us. All things are possible with God.



To me, the rich man asked the wrong question. To answer his question directly, there is nothing you can do to earn eternal life. No matter how many masses we attend, how many prayers we say, how much money we give away, how much we do for each other, none of these things earn us the right to eternal life. Salvation is a free gift of God. We can’t earn it, we don’t merit it, but God gives it to us because he loves us.



But like any gift, we can misuse it or even throw it away. Salvation, thought a gift, is not guaranteed. Our response to God’s great gift of salvation is what we do with our lives. It is how we build our relationship with God through prayer and sacraments, and how we treat one another. It is being virtuous and witnessing to the kingdom. With God’s grace, we can cut the cord on the bag of our past life; we can get the camel through the gate; and we can thread a cable through the eye of a needle. With God all things are possible. It is through God’s grace that we accomplish our God given mission in life.



And the great thing is, we don’t have to wait until some time in the future to be blessed by God. He promises us a hundred times more now in the present age for following him as well as eternal life. Anyone who has been touched by the grace of conversion of who has been touched by the Spirit in anyway can attest to that.



The first reading is similar in nature to the Gospel. The Book of Wisdom has been attributed to King Solomon, seen to be the wisest ruler of the people. God promises Solomon that he could ask for anything and it would be granted. What did he ask for? He asked for Wisdom, which he values over scepter and throne, over riches, over gold, over anything earthly. Wisdom was regarded as God’s own Spirit, as the creative Word of God in which all truth is revealed.



The second reading from Hebrews is challenging a group of Jewish Christians who are getting weary to remain steadfast in their faith. They are undergoing some type of persecution and may have thought that it would be easier to give up their Christian faith. They are told to believe in the Word of God because it is life giving and transformative. The people are also reminded that some day they will have to make an account of their lives before God.



Fr. Phil