October 13, 2024 (28th Sunday in Ordinary Time)
/“The One Thing”
by Fr. Dominic DeLay, O.P.
[This is the text composed by the homilist prior to delivering the homily.]
There’s a reason so many of us who aren’t students have committed ourselves to the Catholic Community at Stanford. We are inspired by the presence of you who are students. Some of you come, and you’re not even Catholic. We know the reason you are here, even if you are too stressed to remember it sometimes, is because you have a deep, deep desire for…something… And that reminds the rest of us that we also have a deep desire…
I asked a few of our undergrad leaders what they want. One said she wants an understanding of God’s mission for her, another to ultimately be in heaven with God, and another peace. What do you want? What do you really want? And what will you do to get it?
The man in today’s gospel story from Mark, a young man in Matthew’s version, wants nothing less than eternal life. He’s so passionate about his goal that he asks Jesus for advice, always a risky move. But Jesus pulls out a stock answer and simply lists the commandments. Disappointed, the man says he’s done all these things since his youth. Apparently, he’s an excellent rule follower. He’s ready for a harder, more advanced set of rules.
Jesus looks at him with love, sees the man’s deepest desire, and says, “You are lacking in one thing.” But he doesn’t tell him what this one thing is. Is it something that can’t be expressed, at least not as a rule? Does Jesus want this man and all of us to go beyond rule following to a more mature faith? While we often resist rules, there are times when they make life easier. It makes me think, during this election season, the first as voters for many of you, of the temptation to think our Catholic faith will tell us precisely how to vote.
Today’s after-Mass discussions about the elections will probably explore not just Catholic rules but also underlying Catholic principles. In the U.S. Bishops’ document on voting, they set forth four basic principles: the need to recognize the dignity of every human being, to promote the common good rather than merely our own, to act in solidarity with all peoples, and to promote subsidiarity. Dignity, common good, solidarity, and subsidiarity. I’ll let you look up subsidiarity. These principles help us judge what is good and right in specific instances. Is this the one thing, possession not just of rules but also of the principles for moral action? Is that what will gain us eternal life?
But our faith asks even more of us. As the bishops’ document reminds us, we need to form our conscience and act according to it. This applies not just to voting but to all moral aspects of our lives. To form our conscience, we learn the authentic rules and principles, not the imbalanced and shallow versions of them that we sometimes find in news coverage or get from well-meaning but fearful Catholics. And we study the issues, talk with good and smart people, and pray. Rinse and repeat. Forming our conscience is hard work and a lifelong task. This is scary business because there may be times when our well-formed conscience, which we are obliged to obey – that’s the number one moral rule of the Church – calls us to act contrary to one of the church’s other rules. Is forming our conscience the one thing?
It is indispensable, but there’s a virtue that enables us to properly use our conscience. Today’s first reading says, “I prayed, and prudence was given me.” The virtue or good habit of prudence is the ability to discern how to apply our conscience in particular situations. Discerning how to vote for a candidate might sound like this: This candidate’s platform aligns with my conscience in more important ways than the other candidates’ platforms, but does she have a track record that indicates sincerity and capability? Will she have the opportunity to pursue the important things? Are her solutions good, or might they cause more harm than good? Is prudence the one thing?
But the pray-er in today’s first reading continues: “I prayed, and prudence was given me; I pleaded, and the spirit of wisdom came to me.” Ah, wisdom. That sounds a bit more exciting, doesn’t it? Who doesn’t want to be wise? Wisdom is a gift of the Holy Spirit that deepens the human understanding we’ve developed through reflection on our mistakes and on life in general. Wisdom sees not only the trees but the forest. And the roots. Wisdom learns from others, walks with others, especially the marginalized and those who aren’t Catholic, as we Catholics are trying to do with our emphasis on synodality. Is wisdom – which by the way doesn’t favor age over youth – is wisdom the one thing in life?
“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…Beyond health and beauty I loved her, and I chose to have her rather than the light…”
This is the stumbling block for the man in the gospel. “You are lacking in one thing,” Jesus says to him with love. “Go, sell what you have, and give to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven…” The man has a deep desire for the one thing that will lead him to eternal life, but he can’t quite bring himself to place this desire above his many possessions. At Jesus’ invitation, his challenge, the man’s face falls, and he goes away sad.
I think Jesus was sad as well. It must have pained him to then say, “How hard it is for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!” I don’t want to merely spiritualize wealth here. After all, Catholic teaching is that, while we have the right to own property, we have the responsibility to share it with those in need. We can take that to the voting booth, by the way. But we are wealthy in other ways, aren’t we? What are your many “possessions”?
One of my treasured possessions is my to-do list. My doing, though, often becomes my identity and gets in the way of seeing people that aren’t in my plan. I talked with a couple other undergrad leaders, who came up with their own enticing list of possessions: comfort, sense of control, prestigious internship opportunities, resumes, the estimation of others – what would they think if I left everything? What are your many possessions and obsessions, and how do they possess you? Might we give up everything for wisdom? Is wisdom the one thing?
“Go, sell what you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.” Then come, follow me. If we follow Jesus, really put him first, will he lead us to that one thing, whatever it is? Or is the one thing not a thing at all, not something we do – “Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” – and not something we have, whether it’s the newest, greatest phone or wisdom – Is the one thing not something we do or possess but a way of being? Is the following itself the one thing?
Jesus does lead us to something, eternal life. But when we walk with Jesus, we are already experiencing eternal life. We walk with Jesus, experiencing in him and each other the one thing we desire most deeply even as we walk together toward the fullness of that one thing. When we Christians walk with Jesus, accompanied by the wisdom and support of our friends of other faiths, we all continually discover and rediscover the one great truth, that we are God’s most valued possession.
