32nd Sunday in Ordinary Time, November 7, 2021

Be slow to judge holiness, or the lack of it, by appearances

Mark 12:38–44

In the course of his teaching he said, “Beware of the scribes, who like to go around in long robes and accept greetings in the marketplaces,

seats of honor in synagogues, and places of honor at banquets.

They devour the houses of widows and, as a pretext, recite lengthy prayers. They will receive a very severe condemnation.”

He sat down opposite the treasury and observed how the crowd put money into the treasury. Many rich people put in large sums.

A poor widow also came and put in two small coins worth a few cents.

Calling his disciples to himself, he said to them, “Amen, I say to you, this poor widow put in more than all the other contributors to the treasury.

For they have all contributed from their surplus wealth, but she, from her poverty, has contributed all she had, her whole livelihood.”

Music Meditations

• “All That I Am, All That I Do” (composed by Sebastian Temple) [YouTube] — Folk Mass
• “For All That You Have Done” (Rend Collective) [YouTube] — Praise and Worship
• “Lord I Offer My Life to You” (Heavenly Voices) [YouTube]
• “Peace Prayer” (John Michael Talbot) [YouTube] — Prayer of St. Francis

Opening Prayer

From Sacred Space, a service of the Irish Jesuits:

Jesus, help us to be alert to our selfishness and our judgmental attitudes toward others. We are far from loving our neighbors as ourselves, and yet that is what you ask us to do. We cannot profess to love you and act with thoughtlessness to our neighbor, so teach us, Lord.

Companions for the Journey

Commentary on the Gospel by Daniel Harrington, S.J. in “America” (a Jesuit weekly publication)

Who Is Holy?

“This poor widow put in more than all the other contributors to the treasury” (Mark 12:43) The central characters in Mark’s Gospel are Jesus and the Twelve, though a number of minor characters are spread throughout the entire narrative. At the end of Chapter 10, however, a series of lesser characters emerge, who (in contrast to the Twelve, who become increasingly obtuse) respond to Jesus in remarkably positive ways. They include Bartimaeus, the friendly scribe of last Sunday’s reading, the generous widow in today’s text, the woman who anoints Jesus at the beginning of the passion narrative, Simon of Cyrene, the centurion at the cross, the women at the cross and at Jesus’ tomb and Joseph of Arimathea, who sees to Jesus’ burial. The reader is encouraged to admire and identify with these figures. Today’s passage from Mark 12 features a contrast between scribes, who carefully cultivate their reputation for holiness, and a poor widow, who really is holy.

In Jesus’ time scribes wrote out legal and other documents for people who were illiterate. They were experts in Jewish religious traditions and knew Israel’s Scriptures very well. Bear in mind that the religious law for Jews was the Torah (the first five books of the Bible). The scribe combined the roles of lawyer and theologian.

The description that Jesus gives of the scribes in today’s passage from Mark is very negative. (Recall, however, his positive attitude toward the friendly scribe in Mark 12.) Jesus first accuses them of being ostentatious in their piety and of doing everything in public in order to gain a reputation for holiness. Then he charges them with using their position to take advantage of widows, the most defenseless members of Jewish society in Jesus’ time. They are condemned for making their reputation for piety a cloak to conceal their dishonest and profitable dealings. These scribes are not really holy. They provide negative examples of behavior to be avoided by Mark’s readers.

By way of contrast, the Markan Jesus points to the poor widow as a positive example of generosity and the true religious spirit. The scene takes place at the Jerusalem temple, a large complex of structures more like a campus than a cathedral. There seem to have been there several trumpet-shaped metal receptacles into which people could throw coins for the upkeep of the temple. Those who threw in many coins would make a lot of noise, while the widow who tossed in two small coins would make hardly any noise at all.

In this context Jesus points to the poor widow as a good example, a model of humble generosity. Even though she contributed little in quantity, the quality of her giving—she gave all she had—makes her into a good example to be imitated. This “minor” character reminds us that genuine holiness resides in a humble and generous spirit before God. Holiness does not always reside in religious professionals, like the scribes, in those who are learned in the things of God and with a public reputation for holiness. As a Catholic priest, biblical scholar and public religious person, I know that none of these roles is an absolute guarantee of holiness and closeness to God. There is more to holiness than ordination, theological education and public position.

For the generous widow the religious activity of almsgiving was not intended as a show to impress others or an opportunity to improve her social and economic status. For her, as one totally dependent on God and without social or economic importance, her action was what a religious action should be (as in Matt 6:1-18)—an expression of love of God and love of neighbor.

The lesson from the contrast between the scribes and the poor widow is this: Be slow to judge holiness by appearances only and be slow to equate holiness with office, credentials and honors. Look beyond appearances and externals, and you may well find to your surprise some very holy persons. These persons are loving and generous—not full of themselves and their own achievements—and knowing and acknowledging their dependence on God. Though only a minor character, the poor widow in today’s Gospel passage shows us that genuine holiness can exist in some surprising persons and places.

Weekly Memorization

Taken from the gospel for today’s session…

She, out of her poverty, gave everything she had

Living the Good News

What action can you take in the next week as a response to today’s reading and discussion?

Keep a private journal of your prayer/actions responses this week. Feel free to use the personal reflection questions or the meditations which follow:

Reflection Questions

Note: language about “the poor” is very uncommon in the gospel of mark. So we should take note when it appears.
• Is it human nature to seek proper recognition for our position or our accomplishments?
  Does our society encourage this tendency?
  What does Jesus say about this very human trait?
• Have I ever been quite impressed with someone, based on her position or title, his car or dress, or other external measurement?
  Have I ever judged someone negatively based on appearances or demeanor, only to revise my opinion after I got to know him or her?
• From “Sacred Space”, a service of the Irish Jesuits:
  Do I think too much about what others think of me?
  Does this influence my behavior?
  Am I ashamed of who I am?
• What image do I try to project to the world?
  How does this affect my behaviors?
• The many and heavy coins the wealth put into the collection made a lot of noise. The widow’s coin was so small that very likely no one heard it. Have I ever done something for someone or given ostentatiously so that everyone know of my generosity?
  Have I ever given in secret?
  What does that say about my motives?
• Do we encounter hypocrisy in our society?
  In our Church?
  In our politics?
  In our relationships?
  How do we counter this?
• In what instances are the less significant “devoured” by those who are more important?
• The New Testament is full of stories of people who were invited to risk all and follow Jesus or his message. (The rich young man, Mary Magdalene, various Apostles, the little child with the loaves and a few fishes, the “good Samaritan”, the widow in this gospel story) How difficult is this to do?
  What is the cost?
  What is the reward?
• How did the action of the widow demonstrate her absolute (and radical) reliance on God?
  Do we “hedge our bets” when asked to risk something for the kingdom?
• Do we act out of a mentality of scarcity or a mentality of abundance?
  How does this mind-set inform our actions?
• How does this story of someone giving “all she had” presage the story Jesus will live out at the end of this gospel?
  Do I really believe that Jesus gave everything he had to his Father and to the mission on which he had embarked three years before?
• From Daniel Harrington, S.J.:
  How do you define holiness?
  Can you think of any apparently unlikely persons who were (or are) really holy?
  Can you think of persons whom you once regarded as holy, but found out that they were (or are) not?
• Who are the contemporary “widows and orphans”?
  How does society treat widows and widowers, or divorced people?
  What gifts might they bring to us as a community?
  Is there anything we can to about the isolation that many people in our society experience?
  How about our own community here at Stanford?
• Do I appreciate the qualities that may be found in the old, the poor, the less important in the world?
  Do I reach out and help old or vulnerable persons?
• What priorities in my life do I have about the use of my money, how much or little I may have?
  Do I feel I owe any of it to those less fortunate?
  Does what I give reflect my gospel values?
• When people give money to others or to causes, which range from The Opera to Second Harvest Food Bank, what do you think is their motivation?
  Do you have a cause you feel strongly about?
  Do you give time or money? Why or why not?

Meditations

A Meditation in the Dominican Style/Asking Questions:

From a homily on Christ the King: “Christ and the Kingdom of Nobodies”:

Jesus, according to the famous Catholic spiritual writer Father Henri Nouwen, was about downward mobility, not upward mobility; His friends were those marginalized by the society in which they traveled: women, the uneducated, the poor, the unclean, the schizophrenic, the criminals, tax collectors and other sinners. In the Kingdom of God, the poor are the messengers of the good news. God’s kingdom is a kingdom of nobodies. A Kingdom of Nobodies.

Is that the kind of world we want?

Often, I think that we don’t “get” Jesus because we don’t want to. In order to belong to God and to one another, we must welcome all to the table of God’s bounty and love. In order to be successful in the eyes of God, we might have to re-evaluate what success means.

Take a look at Jesus’ comments on the Laborers in the Vineyard, Blind Bartimaeus, the poor widow… Listen to Jesus telling his disciples that the last shall be first and the first shall be last…

An examination of the values of Jesus’ kingdom provides a lens through which to bring the questions of our personal life into sharp focus:
What will make me happy?
What shall I do with my work?
How shall I spend my money?
Who shall be my friends?
How am I to love?

Filtering the questions of one’s personal life through the scope of the kingdom brings to light the vision on which Jesus was focused. Such a process can stamp out selfishness, vindictiveness, hatred and judgmentalism, and substitute generosity, forgiveness, inclusion and understanding, but only if we are open to change.

A Meditation in the Dominican Style/Raising Questions:

Let us consider the word “risk”. To risk means to face possible loss due to our action or the lack of it. Some of us are natural risk takers; others of us are risk-averse. Certainly, in the area of money, our culture is always preaching about not being careless or foolish with our money. Will there be enough for college? Will I be able to handle the debt? How can I support a family? Will there be enough to retire? We are also cautioned not to risk our physical safety or our reputations. Conversely, The New Testament is full of stories of people who were invited to risk all and follow Jesus or his message. (The rich young man, Mary Magdalene, various Apostles, the little child with the loaves and a few fishes, the “good Samaritan”, the widow in this gospel story.) How difficult is this to do? What is the cost? What is the reward? I pick one story and meditate on the courage and the faith (read trust) it takes to stretch beyond our comfort zone. I think of a time in my life when I was asked or encouraged to do this. How did it turn out? Would I be willing to risk all? For whom? If not, what holds me back?

A Meditation in the Franciscan Style/Relationship:

Psalm 146 is a hymn of declarative praise for all that God has done for those most in need. According to some sources (since I don’t know Hebrew, this is an act of trust) “to praise” in Hebrew also means “to thank”. What do you have to be thankful for? Write your own hymn of praise or thanksgiving for all that you have been given such as opportunities, health, even life…

A Meditation in the Franciscan Style/Action:

Adapted from Walter Burkhardt, S.J.

My challenge for you this week is to make a start—take a small risk—Put more than you can “afford” in the basket today. Or drop it in the basket provided by a beggar outside the supermarket. Waste an hour of precious study time with someone in the dorm who needs you. Take an afternoon off and walk on the beach to contemplate creation and thank God for it. Let God speak to you. You and God know who you are, where your gifts lie, what keeps you from risking, why you keep giving only out of your surplus. Stretch yourself. Live dangerously and live life in abundance. Risk for God. Dare to be Christ.

Closing Prayer

Jesus, you were poor and loved the poor. Help me to overcome my own need for more and more attention and praise, more and more importance, and help me to purify my attitude so that I am open to your invitation to follow you. Please help those in our world, who work so hard and who have so little. Please help me to be more generous to them and to work to change systems that keep them trapped in their poverty.

31st Sunday in Ordinary Time, October 31, 2021

Do not obsess about rules; instead, act out of love

Mark 12:28–34

One of the scribes, when he came forward and heard them disputing and saw how well he had answered them, asked him, “Which is the first of all the commandments?”

Jesus replied, “The first is this: ‘Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God is Lord alone!

You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.’

The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.”

The scribe said to him, “Well said, teacher. You are right in saying, ‘He is One and there is no other than he.’

And ‘to love him with all your heart, with all your understanding, with all your strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself’ is worth more than all burnt offerings and sacrifices.”

And when Jesus saw that [he] answered with understanding, he said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” And no one dared to ask him any more questions.

Music Meditations

• “Love (One Another)” (Maranatha! Music) [YouTube]
• “10,000 Reasons (Bless the Lord)” (by Matt Redman) [YouTube]

Opening Prayer

From Love, A Guide for Prayer, by Jacqueline Bergan and Marie Schwan:

Lord my God, when your love spilled over into creation, you thought of me. I am from love of love for love. Let my heart, O God, always recognize cherish and enjoy your goodness in all creation Direct all that is me toward your praise, Teach me reverence for every person, all things. Energize me in your service. Lord God, May nothing ever distract me from your love… Neither health nor sickness wealth no poverty honor nor dishonor long life nor short life May I never seek no choose to be other Than you intend or wish Amen.

Companions for the Journey

This is a short writing from one of the Christian or non-Christian witnesses of our tradition who embodies the theme of the gospel we are studying today:

When I was growing up in the pre-Vatican II Irish Catholic ghetto into which I was born, there were a lot of rules to learn, commandments to keep and strictures which must be followed. In Judaism, there were over six hundred commandments in the religious laws Jesus’ time and rabbis were often asked to prioritize them for their disciples so as to put appropriate stress on those that were more important (“heavy laws”) and those less important (“less weighty”). I think the version of American Catholicism in which I was brought up had that number of 600 Jewish laws beat by a mile. The majority of these rules were prohibitions, with appropriate and dire consequences to follow if we strayed out of the lane we were supposed to be in and committed a sin. Being a good Catholic was identified with obeying the rules of the Church, large and small. We divided infractions of the laws as either mortal or venial sins, and spent a lot of time convincing ourselves that what we did wrong fell into the venial, or lesser category. The main motivation was fear of angering God and therefore going to hell. There also existed the “rules” of our individual Catholic families or our particular culture (some of which were unwritten, but just “known”). These “rules” seem to be something all human institutions create in order to keep people in line and to keep society running civilly, if not smoothly.

The problem occurs when we, like some of our Jewish ancestors, mix up our priorities.

Jesus tells us throughout the gospels that if we do all sorts of good things, observe the most stringent practices, avoid even the occasion of sin, we are missing the mark if our motivation is only religious self-preservation or personal happiness. Jesus’ answer to the scribe (a sort of canon lawyer) is not radical or set apart from what a devout Jew might have said. In fact, he draws from the Hebrew scriptures for his answer. To describe the love we should have for God he quotes Deut. 6:5; which still is the daily prayer prayed by Jewish believers—the Schema. Love of neighbor is commanded in Lev. 19:18, (It is quoted three times in the New Testament, more than any other text from the Hebrew scriptures.) His response provides an over-riding principle that applies to all our religious, ethical and social behavior. All the laws and customs under which we live are to be guided and interpreted according to Jesus’ commandment. It is obvious that Jesus’ teaching about the greatest commandment was very important in the early church since all three synoptic gospels have it.

He emphasizes the two most important commandments out of which all of our actions should flow. Everything we do must be motivated by authentic love of God, out of which will naturally flow love of neighbor. We want to be careful today not to emphasize a message that turns this invitational goal of loving God and neighbor into a command to love God and neighbor. The Invitation to love God completely doesn’t come as a mandate from a dictator God who wishes slave-like docility and complete dedication. You can’t demand such love by issuing a decree from on high. No one can make us love and we cannot make anyone love us. God’s love, like all love, is always invitational and never coercive. So our measuring stick is not how many boxes of goodness we can tick off, how much we give up in Lent, or even if we gave up our bodies to be burnt. St Paul says:

If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

And St Teresa of Calcutta put it even more succinctly:
“Not all of us can do great things, but we can all do small things with great love.”

Weekly Memorization

Taken from the gospel for today’s session…

What do you want me to do for you?

Living the Good News

What action can you take in the next week as a response to today’s reading and discussion?

Keep a private journal of your prayer/actions responses this week. Feel free to use the personal reflection questions or the meditations which follow:

Reflection Questions

• Are you fulfilling these commands? What do you need to do to love God more? To love your neighbor more?
• If the most important thing is to have a loving heart, how demanding to you find that to be? What makes it hard to love others?
• What commandment(s) are a priority for me? Which do I struggle with?
  How can you love someone you don’t like?
  How can you love someone with whom you are angry?
  How can you love someone when you just don’t feel like it?
  Love is action, not a feeling. Agree or disagree?
• What are some of the ways I can practice loving the unlovable?
• How hard is it to love your neighbor as yourself when you don’t really love yourself? What does loving yourself mean?
• Does our own need for love sometimes push us into dark places? How do we counter that?
• From Sacred Space, a service of the Irish Jesuits:
  I notice, too, what Jesus says are the two important commandments. They are about love, not about rules. Do I sometimes think rules are the most important thing?
  Do I sometimes judge those who break the rules?
• Was there ever a time in my life when I wanted to love or to be loved, but was unable to elicit either?
• How often have I expressed my love for another by saying: “I’m sorry”, or “I understand”, or “You matter to me”, or how can I help”?
• Is it hard for me to love those who are continuous whiners or blamers?
• Is it hard for me to love someone who is richer, prettier, smarter, more successful, someone who writes those “braggy” Christmas letters? How do I get past resentment or envy or irritation to love someone less than loveable?
• How, exactly, do I define neighbor?
• What are the signs in my life that, like the scribe, I am “not far from the kingdom of God? Am I a sign of the kingdom of God to others? When and how?
• A long time ago in England, Jonathan Swift said: “We have just enough religion to make us hate, but not enough to make us love one another.” How true is this today? Has our religious tradition ever been guilty of fearing, judging, criticizing or even “hating” other religious traditions? How can we deal with this issue? Can you point to specific instances of improved relations between Catholics and Jews in recent years? What importance do they have?
• Father Walter Burghardt, S.J. said, in a commentary on this gospel, that the opposite of love is not hate; the opposite of love is indifference. What do you think?

Meditations

A Meditation in the Dominican Style/Asking Questions:

From Sacred Space, a service of the Irish Jesuits:

Lord, why should I love you with all my heart? Because if a group of good people set up a beautiful house and gardens for me to live in, I would love them. If they worked against all that might hurt me, I would love them . If one of them would die a horrible death to save me from disaster, I would love them. If they, Lord, promised eternal joy, I would love them.

Question: Is this love, gratitude or coercion? Is it possible for us to mix up our motives for loving and confuse love with self-interest?

How hard is it to separate love from gratitude or love from habit or obligation? Can you make some love you by being good to them? Have you ever “guilted” someone into “loving” you be showering them with gifts, attention or helping them out of a tight spot? How, then, do you know it is love? How, them, does God know it is love?

A Meditation in the Franciscan Style/Action:

Just how do I love myself? To take care of my needs, I plan ahead; I give energy, time and money to those things that provide comfort and enjoyment, for example. So, do I love others in the same way? I consider this quote by St. Basil the Great, also a Doctor of the Church from the fourth century: “The bread which you do not use is the bread of the hungry; the garment hanging in your wardrobe is the garment of him who is naked; the shoes that you do not wear are the shoes of the one who is barefoot; the money that you keep locked away is the money of the poor; the acts of charity that you do not perform are so many injustices that you commit.” How does this relate to the second part of the great commandment? Is it too strict and too harsh? What changes can you make in your need to possess and to be comfortable that somehow benefits those less fortunate? Make a plan and execute it.

A Meditation in the Augustinian Style/Relationship:

Psalm 19 is actually a better reflection on the gospel than Sunday's psalm 18, because it deals with God's laws, the laws of nature and the laws (commandments) which govern human behavior. Read this verse from Psalm 19 and contemplate the rewards of following God’s laws. Then re-write the psalm as a personal letter to God, using the second person to address God, and to tell God personally how the laws of the universe and the laws governing personal behavior have affected you personally: ("Lord, your law is perfect", because ------- etc.).:

The law of the Lord is perfect, it revives the soul. The rule of the Lord is to be trusted, it gives wisdom to the simple. The precepts of the Lord are right, they gladden the heart. The command of the Lord is clear, it gives light to the eyes. The fear of the Lord is holy, abiding forever. The decrees of the Lord are truth, and all of them are just. They are more to be desired than gold, than the purest gold, And sweeter are they than honey, than honey from the comb. So in them your servant finds instruction; great reward is in their keeping.

A Meditation in the Dominican Style/Asking Questions:

If you were God, what would be the laws of the universe that you would devise? What commandments would you give to your people? How are your commandments different from what you perceive as the laws God has set in place? Which of God’s laws are the hardest for you to obey? Love your enemy? or feed the hungry (not the deserving--the hungry)? or comfort the afflicted? or visit the imprisoned? or.......?

Pick one precept that you find particularly difficult to deal with and pray to God for the gift of empathy and generosity.

Poetic Reflection:

Read the Following poem by Stanford graduate Thomas Centolella. What does it say to you about the one thing that is necessary to create the kingdom of God on earth?

“In The Evening We Shall Be Examined On Love”
-St. John of the Cross

And it won’t be multiple choice,
though some of us would prefer it that way.
Neither will it be essay, which tempts us to run on
when we should be sticking to the point, if not together.
In the evening there shall be implications
our fear will turn to complications. No cheating,
we’ll be told and we’ll try to figure the cost of being true
to ourselves. In the evening when the sky has turned
that certain blue, blue of exam books, blue of no more
daily evasions, we shall climb the hill as the light empties
and park our tired bodies on a bench above the city
and try to fill in the blanks. And we won’t be tested
like defendants on trial, cross-examined
till one of us breaks down, guilty as charged. No,
in the evening, after the day has refused to testify,
we shall be examined on love like students
who don’t even recall signing up for the course
and now must take their orals, forced to speak for once
from the heart and not off the top of their heads.
And when the evening is over and it’s late,
the student body asleep, even the great teachers
retired for the night, we shall stay up
and run back over the questions, each in our own way:
what’s true, what’s false, what unknown quantity
will balance the equation, what it would mean years from now
to look back and know
we did not fail.

(from Lights & Mysteries)

Closing Prayer

From Ed Ingebretzen, S.J.:

Father you are hungry and we may be nothing in your hands but let us at least taste your fire: let us be ash, be dross, be waste in the heat of your desire. Let us at least need, and want, and learn that it is impossible to want you too much, to want you too long. May the heat of our thirst for you dry the rivers reduce the mountains to dust, thin the air. God, you who want us more than we want you, be a fan to our flame, the end to our need, the ocean we seek to drain.

30th Sunday in Ordinary Time, October 24, 2021

What about my own blindness? What do I want from Jesus?

Mark 10:46–52

They came to Jericho. And as he was leaving Jericho with his disciples and a sizable crowd, Bartimaeus, a blind man, the son of Timaeus, sat by the roadside begging.

On hearing that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out and say, “Jesus, son of David, have pity on me.”

And many rebuked him, telling him to be silent. But he kept calling out all the more, “Son of David, have pity on me.”

Jesus stopped and said, “Call him.” So they called the blind man, saying to him, “Take courage; get up, he is calling you.”

He threw aside his cloak, sprang up, and came to Jesus.

Jesus said to him in reply, “What do you want me to do for you?” The blind man replied to him, “Master, I want to see.”

Jesus told him, “Go your way; your faith has saved you.” Immediately he received his sight and followed him on the way.

Music Meditations

• “Open My Eyes, Lord” (by Jesse Manibusan) [YouTube]
• “Healer of My Soul” (John Michael Talbot) [YouTube]
• “Lord I Need You” (Matt Maher) [YouTube]

Opening Prayer

From Father William Bausch:

Some of us are blind to our own faults… Lord, we want to see
Some of us always focus on the weakness of others… Lord, we want to see
Some of us never acknowledge life’s blessings… Lord, we want to see
Some of us are blinded by unbridled desires for pleasure, money, and self-promotion and fail to notice the needs of others… Lord, we want to see
Some of us have eyes darkened by prejudice and hared… Lord, we want to see
Some of us are blinded by pride which makes us think we are the center of the universe… Lord, we want to see
Some of us are blinded by ambition and step all over others’ feelings… Lord, we want to see
Some of us are blinded by self-absorption which makes us see we are the center of the universe… Lord, we want to see
Some of us wallow in our own self-pity and are turned in on our own sins and never notice God’s mercy… Lord, we want to see
Some of us don’t have our prayers answered and need to learn to sense something deeper happening in the crosses we bear… Lord, we want to see

Companions for the Journey

From a homily by Father William Bausch:

By way of introduction, the story of the blind man from the past conjures up a story about a blind man in the present. At a celebrity party, singer Stevie Wonder met Tiger Woods. Wonder mentioned that he, too, is an excellent golfer. Tiger was a bit skeptical that the blind musician could play golf well, but he was too polite to say anything, “When I tee off”, the singer explained, “I have a guy call me from the green. My sharp sense of hearing lets me aim.” Tiger was impressed and Stevie suggested that they play a round. Then Tiger agreed, Stevie asks: “How about we play for $100,000?” Tiger insisted that he wouldn’t play for money, but Stevie argued until Tiger finally relented and said, “So, when do you want to play?” Stevie laughed and said: “Any night you choose.”

It is significant that today’s gospel comes right after last Sunday’s gospel about James and John seeking to sit at the right and the left hand of Jesus, not seeing what this would involve. The side-by-side position of these two episodes says that Jesus’ intimates had it all wrong and today’s stranger had it all right. In short, the apostles, physically able to see, were morally blind. The man in today’s gospel is physically blind, but morally full of sight and insight. We know this by the way he answers Jesus’ question: “What do you want me to do for you?”

Pause for a minute. What would be your answer? What would you want Jesus to do for you? To win the lottery? To get a raise? To regain health? To reclaim a lost child? To be rich and famous? To be happy? Bartimaeus. Why did they remember his name and not the others? Perhaps it is because he was the only one to give the right answer to Jesus question when he answered: “That I might see”. Whether he was cured or no he wanted to see, that is, to see the meaning behind it all, to see what life was about, to see how to really live, to see some sense in life’s confusion and unfairness, to see the hand of God somewhere in the present, to see beyond his physical blindness. He was, in short, asking for faith, for goodness, for moral insight. Would that be our prayer? This kind of sight that Bartimaeus was asking for was to see as Jesus sees, to see what’s important. Which is why the gospel adds that he immediately followed Jesus. That is, once he saw what was really real, what really counts, he left his former life and gave his life away to Jesus.

According to the gospel, many rebuked Bartimaeus, telling him to keep silent. We have the same today. We have a media that keeps us endlessly distracted with trivia and a culture that offers us bread and circuses or purchases as the means of happiness. Many rebuke us telling us to keep silent, not bring up all that “spiritual” stuff and the real issues of the spirit. But like Bartimaeus, we must cry out all the louder our deepest and most heartfelt needs when Jesus stops before us and asks: “What is it that you really want me to do for you?”

Your answer?

Weekly Memorization

Taken from the gospel for today’s session…

What do you want me to do for you?

Living the Good News

What action can you take in the next week as a response to today’s reading and discussion?

Keep a private journal of your prayer/actions responses this week. Feel free to use the personal reflection questions or the meditations which follow:

Reflection Questions

• Why might God desire us to ask for what we want instead of just giving it to us?
  Do you think God knows what we want without our having to ask for it?
• If Jesus were to ask me: “What do you want me to do for you?”, what would my answer be?
  How honest am I with God about what I want or need?
• Is there anything I want badly enough that I would call out in public?
• Is there anything that I would prefer Jesus not notice about me?
• From Father Paul Gallagher, OFM:
  Why do you think people rebuked Bartimaeus for crying out to Jesus?
  What do you think were their motives?
• Bartimaeus was an irritation to the crowd. Why are we often annoyed by needy people?
• What does this story and others in the gospels tell us about the role of the insignificant and outcast in recognizing Jesus?
  Why would this be so?
  What kind of message is there for us to see?
• Does it bother me when those who ask and ask seem to get and get while those who soldier on uncomplaining are not noticed?
• What are my “blind” spots?
  Is there someone or something I need to see in a new way? Why?
  How hard is it to do so?
• What do I want to “see”, really?
  What would be the cost of regaining my “sight”?
• What of God’s presence and providence in our lives have we ever been blind to, focusing instead on the fact that life has not been perfect for us?
  Do I stop and appreciate my God-given ability to see?
  How much have I noticed the sheer beauty of God’s creation?
  What other abilities or gifts do I sometimes take for granted?
• What in our culture blinds us to what we should be seeing?
  What in our Church does the same?
  Whom does society or the Church choose not to see?
• Which is true: Seeing is believing or believing is seeing?
• Describe the faith you think Bartimaeus had.
• How important is Bartimaeus throwing off his only form of protection from the elements (his cloak) and following Jesus?
  Why is this part of the story often ignored?

Meditations

A Meditation in the Dominican Style/Asking Questions:

Father Xavier often says that we are what we notice. However, we go through life so focused on certain tasks or pleasures, that we fail to notice many things—the unspoken anxiety of a co-worker, the need for someone in my family or my dorm to have me really listen to what they are NOT saying, for example. We cultivate a sort of selective blindness which allows us to be efficient and successful, but may cause us to skip the nuances which can make us more like Christ, who noticed everybody…

What people I encounter in my everyday life am I blind to? How do I react to the person outside the grocery store with a cardboard sign? The homeless man with all of his possessions in a shopping cart? The person working for minimum wage who is the sole support of her family? The dorm-mate abusing drugs or alcohol? The person in my class who has such a hard time with chemistry?

What attitudes or habits in myself am I blind to? My defensiveness when asked a simple question? My brusqueness and irritation when I am feeling pushed for time? My exasperation with those who are not as competent as I am? My dismissal of things I do not want to hear? My own cry for help? What can I do to increase my awareness and sensitivity to those around me and my own needs and failings?

What do I actually DO with that awareness?

A Meditation in the Ignatian Style/Imagination:

First, read the gospel aloud.

Then imagine that you are Bartimaeus. What kind of childhood did you have? Describe your average day. Immerse yourself in the sounds and smells of the place where you sit every day. What is it like to be a beggar? How did you come by your cloak? How long have you been sitting on the side of the road? How do you get there each day? What are you waiting for? Do you believe in God, in God’s love and mercy? Describe how you feel and what you think as Jesus comes by with his disciples and followers. Do you believe that Jesus is someone special? How do you feel when he stops to talk to you? Why do you throw your cloak aside, when it is your only protection against the elements? Is it the restoration of your sight that made you follow Jesus, or something else?

Then look at your own life. Is it more like that of Bartimaeus or the followers of Jesus? What do you have to lose by following Jesus? What do you have to gain? Is the choice harder for you than it is for Bartimaeus?

Sit quietly for a few moments and imagine yourself hearing Jesus say: “Your faith has saved you.” How does it make you feel?

Literary Reflection:

This is a poetic form of an Ignatian Meditation, getting into the mind and life of someone you have encountered in the gospels. Does this poem by Ed Ingebretzen, S.J. help you to imagine what life was like for this man, for the hopelessness he experienced, and the raw honesty with which he approached God?

“Bartimaeus”

Maybe I could love you God
If less of me
Spent each day dead;

I am Bartimaeus:
I wait by long roads
And most Friday afternoons
I wait
Just to hear you pass.

Do you see these hands?
They are wrinkled in despair,
And these my eyes
Never really could see.

Look at me
A blind beggar
Hiding by some tree;
Like a lone widow, drunk with fear,
Clutching some piece of hem
In silent faith.

You ask by not asking
What I want:
These hands, these eyes
Speak worlds better than I.

Closing Prayer

From Sacred Space, a service of the Irish Jesuits:

Lord, I sometimes open my eyes in the morning, and do not notice the sunshine, the green of trees, the colours in my room, the warmth or sorrow in the faces around me. If I had been blind, like Bartimaeus in today’s gospel, I would long to open my eyes and see all that is to be seen. I could not have enough of this light-filled world around me.

Give me a relish, Lord, for all that my eyes can take in: not the pre-selected shots of the TV screen, but the endlessly varied landscape and peoplescape that surrounds me. I pray with Bartimaeus: Master, let me receive my sight.

29th Sunday in Ordinary Time, October 17, 2021

What it means to travel the road with Jesus

Mark 10:35–45

Then James and John, the sons of Zebedee, came to him. “Teacher,” they said, “we want you to do for us whatever we ask.”

“What do you want me to do for you?” he asked.

They replied, “Let one of us sit at your right and the other at your left in your glory.”

“You don’t know what you are asking,” Jesus said. “Can you drink the cup I drink or be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with?”

“We can,” they answered.

Jesus said to them, “You will drink the cup I drink and be baptized with the baptism I am baptized with, but to sit at my right or left is not for me to grant. These places belong to those for whom they have been prepared.”

When the ten heard about this, they became indignant with James and John.

Jesus called them together and said, “You know that those who are regarded as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them.

Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all.

For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

Music Meditations

• “My God, My God, Why (Psalm 22)” (The Psalm Project) [YouTube]
• “The Servant Song” (sung by Maranatha! Promise Band) [YouTube]

Opening Prayer

Dear Lord, sometimes I am much more willing to be served than to serve. Sometimes I strive to be “better than” those around me. Help me to remember what you came here to do, and to remember that this task—to serve others—is now mine to do. Rid me of selfishness and false pride; give me strength and courage to follow you, even in the hard places.

Companions for the Journey

Really! Couldn’t Mark have edited today’s gospel and softened its blatant tones? Can you imagine depicting two of Jesus’ closest disciples, James and John, as brazen and opportunistic? Matthew, who wrote after Mark, also tells today’s gospel story, but dilutes James and John’s raw ambition by having their mother make the same request; thus deflecting possible scorn away from the sons to their mother. (What a shame, to risk making a stereotype out of a Jewish mother—but that’s for another discussion!) Mark does nothing to put the disciples in a better light. He has both James and John asking in unison for a favor and Jesus seems prepared to cede to their request, “What do you wish me to do for you?” Then comes the ambitious request from the two disciples, who must have felt they were on the inside track for rewards, power and fame. “Grant that in your glory we may sit one at your right and the other at your left.” Were these first followers of Jesus supposed to be our models of faith? Not as Mark portrays them!

Let’s face it, if this were the business world or a conquering army ready to take control of a country or territory and you felt you had an “in” with the chief executive or conquering hero, wouldn’t you be tempted to pull him or her aside and put your request for status and power in early? If you’re going to get ahead in the business or political world such a move, a grab for power, would make perfect sense. You would even be lauded for your initiative and foresight. But that’s not the way of the reign, the new community, Jesus came to establish. That’s not what he had been teaching his disciples, as they traveled to Jerusalem, about service and giving one’s life for others. The disciples miss the point entirely and Mark doesn’t shrink from exposing how far off they were from the message Jesus was preaching. The other ten heard what the two had asked and they “became indignant at James and John.” Judging from the way Mark has also been describing all the disciples, as dense and spiritually blind, the others were probably “indignant” because James and John beat them to the punch. “First come, first served”—and they weren’t first! You can’t blame the disciples for not understanding what Jesus was saying. After all, what leader of a movement for total change can expect followers to stay with him or her by promising suffering, a life of service and obedience—and asking them to choose the last place—as Jesus has been instructing his disciples? No wonder he had so few and no wonder they were practically all gone when he met his death in Jerusalem.

Misunderstanding about what discipleship asks was not limited to just those initial travelers with Jesus. Jesus asks us the same question he asked James and John, “Can you drink the cup that I will drink…?” They respond, “We can…” —but they couldn’t. Nor can we, not on our own. Jesus is asking us to be servants and slaves; to be willing to put up with inconvenience and even pain for the sake of his message. Our lives already ask too much of us; why would we want to take on more? Why would we want to participate in Jesus’ own suffering? Notice that Jesus is not asking us to accept just any kind of pain and suffering; nor that pain and suffering are good in themselves. Quite the contrary. It’s clear from his healing ministry that he wanted to relieve people of their pain and free them from oppressive forces. Instead, he is inviting his disciples to accept his cross; to drink the cup he drank and be immersed in his baptism. Not the one at the Jordan, but the same baptism of fire he was about to undergo.

Jesus isn’t handing out rewards and end-of-the-year bonuses for jobs well done. His disciples aren’t on the board of a multi-national corporation. Instead they are being called to follow Jesus in the servant’s way. If they are to be leaders, it will be as servant-leaders, giving their lives for others as Jesus did. Then it will be up to God to determine who gets the rewards and what kind.

Indeed, don’t we know people who claim to have begun to receive their rewards already! A man, with the consent of his family and children, takes his father, who is suffering from Alzheimer’s, into their home and they care for him till he dies. This loving gesture calls for sacrifice on the family’s part. The pattern of the daily home life shifts enormously. After grandpa dies they all agree that, despite the costs to their individual and family lives, they wouldn’t have had it any other way. They feel blessed by the privilege of accompanying their beloved grandfather on his final journey. There are many other familial stories which require freely-assumed sacrifices.

We would say, “Well, that’s what families are supposed to do!” But, in Jesus, our “family” has expanded infinitely beyond the blood boundaries. Now we see all humans as our sisters and brothers and their need calls us to sacrifice; to drink the cup Jesus is offering us. So, why choose to accept Jesus’ invitation to follow him? Are we masochists who just love the thought of suffering, being neglected and treated as unimportant, naive believers? Isn’t it because we hear God calling us to a richer, more meaningful life? Are we drawn to discover a new life right now, one that might fail other criteria the world uses to measure success—but which gives us a share in God’s life already? In responding to Jesus’ call we have come to discover that what the world calls “success,” yields little of lasting value. Jesus tells us the path to the life he promises us is paved with many opportunities to serve—or not; to offer our lives or hoard them; to let go of the notion that we are the center of the universe and cast our eyes to those on the borders of life and make them our focus and concern. In other words, to give our lives to whatever form of death our particular discipleship calls us to, so that in dying we might rise to new life. We hear in today’s gospel once again the invitation to drink the cup Christ has drunk and be baptized with the fire he was—and then to receive the gift of life God is always offering us.

Mark doesn’t soften the flaws of the disciples. Nor does he show Jesus casting them off and trying again to find more suitable candidates to follow him. They will go on to fail and misunderstand him even when he needs them the most. But when he rises from the dead he will forgive them and anoint them with his Spirit, sending them out to call others, as he called them, to be fishers of humans. The tale of the disciples gives us hope. Who among us has not failed to fully drink the cup Jesus has offered? Who cannot confess to attitudes of competition; the misuse of power; a lack of humility and dependence on God; lukewarm self-denial for the sake of the Gospel; misdirected focus on possessions in place of people and a hardness of heart to Jesus’ words? Whatever our positions in family, Church and community we all, at one time or another, have been as deaf to Jesus’ teachings about discipleship as the first disciples Mark tells us about today. But the same forgiveness offered me them is also given to us. The same spirit of renewed vigor that came upon them is also our gift again today. We hear Jesus’ teachings, we admit our failure to live up to them, we are forgiven and, to our surprise, sent out again to be his servants to the world, where we learn again that real prominence in Jesus’ kingdom is through service and self-offering.

Weekly Memorization

Taken from the gospel for today’s session…

Whoever would be first among you must be a slave to all

Living the Good News

What action can you take in the next week as a response to today’s reading and discussion?

Keep a private journal of your prayer/actions responses this week. Feel free to use the personal reflection questions or the meditations which follow:

Reflection Questions

• Jesus, in this story, is “on the road” to Jerusalem, with all that events that that road portends. Those who wish to be Jesus’ disciples have to walk our own road as well. What does my road look like?
  Does the phrase “no pain, no gain” apply here? How?
  What makes taking up our cross and following Jesus an attractive proposition?
• Have I ever asked God for something without realizing what, exactly, I was really asking for and what the consequences might be?
• “Unless you make daily choices that make a difference, you are not worthy of me”—What would some of those daily choices be?
• What got in the way of James’ and John’s longing for wholeness and holiness?
  What can get in our way?
• Notice that the self-centeredness of the Sons of Thunder (James and John) stimulates the self-centeredness of the other disciples. Can this apply in our own lives?
  How about our spiritual lives?
• Mark’s community was suffering intermittent persecutions large and small. It was sometimes hard for them to remember what Jesus taught about service and suffering in his name. What does it mean to be a “slave to all”?
  How does that square with our culture’s philosophy of success?
  How hard is it to avoid being seduced by the trappings of success we see everywhere in our culture?
• Has our church’s hierarchical system and the way we treat those in the religious seats of power modeled Jesus’ call to servant-leadership?
  How do James and John reflect the attitudes of some leaders in the Church today?
• How hard is it to attach ourselves to a courageous individual or a worthy cause knowing that we might be criticized, or worse?
  Does the phrase “no pain, no gain” apply here? How?
• Is pain and suffering a goal in itself? Is Jesus saying we should seek failure, loss, and rejection in order to be good followers?
• Who has modeled for me what it means to be a servant of the gospel?
• The disciples often misunderstood what it means to be a servant-disciple, and sometimes acted in ways that Jesus would not have approved of. What does Jesus’ treatment of his ambitious and foolish followers tell us about how He will treat us if we fail to measure up?
• The work “cross” is related to the word “crisis” and the making of hard decisions. What crises have I weathered in my life?
  Have they ever been related to my Christian life?
  What were my criteria for making some difficult decisions in the past?
• Notice here that James and John are invoking an ago old custom of using personal acquaintance or relationship to “grease the wheels” for them in some way or another. Has is this played out in our world?
  Have I ever attached myself to someone with great power, success or charisma hoping some other glory might make its way to me?
• How would I react if Jesus told me my life of service to him was going to cost me my friends, my family, my livelihood, my life?
• In what ways do I resist my Christian calling to be a servant disciple?

Meditations

A Meditation in the Dominican Style (Asking Questions):

Read the following:

Is not this the fast that I choose:
to loose the bonds of injustice,
to undo the thongs of the yoke,
to let the oppressed go free,
and to break every yoke?
Is it not to share your bread with the hungry,
and bring the homeless poor into your house;
when you see the naked, to cover them,
and not to hide yourself from your own kin?

—Isaiah 58:6–7

and this from today’s (29th Sunday in Ordinary Time) first reading:

the Lord was pleased to crush him in infirmity
If he gives his life as an offering for sin.
He shall see his descendants in a long life,
And the will of the Lord shall be accomplished through him
Because of his affliction he shall see the light in fullness of days;
Through his suffering, my servant shall justify many and their guilt he shall bear.

—Isaiah 53:10–11

The “Suffering Servant Jesus” of Mark’s gospel had its roots in the teachings if the prophet Isaiah. For many of the ancient Jews, this reference is to the whole of Israel and the Jewish people. Can you see some passages in this section that apply to the Jewish people? This passage and the gospel passage each illustrate that Jesus was to be a Messiah that was inconsistent with normal notions of power and kingship. It also means that we who want to follow Jesus seek not power and privilege, but service to others. Some of this service will inconvenience us; some of this service could cost us not less than everything. Of these verses, which is the easiest for you to fulfill? Which is the most challenging?

Litany of Humility

Pray this once a day every day this week:

“A Private Litany of Humility”

From the desire of being praised, deliver me Jesus
From the desire of being honored, deliver me Jesus
From the desire of being preferred, deliver me Jesus
From the desire of being consulted, deliver me Jesus
From the desire of being approved, deliver me Jesus
From the desire of comfort and ease, deliver me Jesus
From the fear of being criticized, deliver me Jesus
From the fear of being passed over, deliver me Jesus
From the fear of being forgotten, deliver me Jesus
From the fear of being lonely, deliver me Jesus
From the fear of being hurt, deliver me Jesus
From the fear of suffering, deliver me Jesus
Jesus, meek and humble of heart,
Make my strength like unto Thine. Amen

—St. Ignatius: Orientations, Volume 1

A Meditation in the Augustinian Style (Relationship/Dialogue with God):

Read Psalm 22. Remember, this was written hundreds of years before Jesus’ death on the cross. This is an old Jewish lament of feeling like nothing has gone right, even though the author has tried to be a good person. Imagine what it would be like to pour your heart into an enterprise and feel like both the enterprise and you have failed. Then write your own psalm, taking from psalm 22 lines that are appropriate to your life and devise new ones that specifically refer to you. Be honest with God about your frustration, anger and sorrow, as the psalmist is. THEN, follow that up with what you imagine God’s line-by-line response might be to your lamentations and your sorrow. Can you write a different ending to your own psalm as a result of this meditation?

Poetic Reflection:

Do I see any relationship between the thoughts expressed in Psalm 22 and in this poem by Rev. Ed Ingebretzen? For example, what does each say about the things we wish and pray for?

“One Major Asking”

all that I once considered important
all that was gainful, right
proper to my state
(lord jesus
have mercy
have always
mercy)

all I ever put my hand to—
(the kind
we always hope
but never expect)

the dust of my desires
that both reveal and conceal you
have turned within me
(have mercy
hear our prayer
that wrinkles our hands.)

Our life is a petition
ceaseless repetition—
one major asking
for breath, bread
for surcease.
(Lord Jesus
hear our prayer
both knowing made
and unknown, prayed--
the praying for
God knows what—
The essential need
yet strange to us.)

from To Keep From Singing

Closing Prayer

Lord, help me to be open to serve those who most need it right now. Help me to be generous with my time, knowing I often have so little of it. Help me to make time, as you did, to pray, to rest, and refresh my soul. It is in this way I can best live out your message. Give strength, courage, and encouragement to all those serving others: doctors, nurses, counselors, teachers, social workers, ministers of your word and ministers to their own families. [Pause here to recall the names of those who are, at this moment, “slaves of all”, and pray for those whose names are known to nobody.] We ask you this in the name of the love you bear for all of us.

28th Sunday in Ordinary Time, October 10, 2021

Who or what keeps me from loving God completely?

Mark 10:17–30

As he 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.”

Music Meditations

• “Seek Ye First” (sung by Maranatha! Praise Band) [YouTube]
• “The Summons” (sung by Robert Kochis) [YouTube]
• “Be Thou My Vision” (sung by Fernando Ortega) [YouYube]

Opening Prayer

Jesus, you ask us to leave everything and to follow you. I think you mean all those things that insulate me from your love and from the love of others. Let me examine what is the one thing holding me back from freedom. I can walk away or I can ask you help me to deal with this stumbling block. Help me to see what is truly necessary and life-giving and to use whatever goods and talents I have for the purpose of loving. Help me to be free of those attachments, even to those I love, that hold me back, that weigh me down. Help me to set myself free to follow you.

Companions for the Journey

Adapted from “Living Space”, a service of the Irish Jesuits:

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. “Good Teacher, what must I do to share in everlasting 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.

“I have kept all these things since I was young,” says the man. 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: “But there is one more thing: go and sell all you have and give to the poor. After that come and 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. Jesus had asked for the one thing which the man believed showed he was specially blessed by God. He had not expected this. After he had gone Jesus looked at his disciples and said: “How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God!” Now it was his disciples’ turn to be alarmed and shocked.

Their whole tradition believed that wealth was a clear sign of God’s blessings; poverty was a curse from God.

Jesus removes any misunderstanding on their part: “It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the Kingdom of God.” In other words, quite impossible. This was really too much for them. “In that case,” they asked each other, “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 middle 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 a person who has more, a lot more, than those around him and especially when many of those around him 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 emphasize 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. 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, 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 someone has 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 it very difficult to give up if God asked it of me. It might be a relationship, it might be a job or position, it might be good health.

To be a disciple 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. And still Jesus looked at him with love…

Weekly Memorization

Taken from the gospel for today’s session…

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.

Living the Good News

What action can you take in the next week as a response to today’s reading and discussion?

Keep a private journal of your prayer/actions responses this week. Feel free to use the personal reflection questions or the meditations which follow:

Reflection Questions

• Who are some people I know who might fit this description of the rich young man?
• Has there been a time in my life when I found “getting and spending” no longer enough and yearned for something else to focus on?
• Why did Jesus tell him to sell everything and give the proceeds to the poor before following Jesus?
  What are the implications for us?
• Realistically speaking, do I think Jesus is asking everyone, including me, to give everything I have to the poor?
  How then, do I interpret this suggestion, for myself?
• In my desire to enter the kingdom, is there some one thing that I lack?
• What are some hindrances besides wealth that can keep us from following Jesus?
• In my daily life do I think of wealth or talent as a blessing?
  How has my wealth or talent been a blessing in my life?
  How can it be a distraction from our relationship to God?
  Why do I think Jesus seems to find wealth a problem?
• Are riches always condemned in the gospels?
  How can we reconcile our “riches” with God’s kingdom?
• Do I know people who seem to want to be sure that they will receive eternal life, or say that they know that they are saved?
  Do I feel that these people have a sense that they are guaranteed eternal life?
  Why is that so important to them?
  What, besides “keeping the rules” must we do to obtain eternal life?
• How does our consumer culture make it hard to say we have enough?
• Was I surprised at Jesus reaction to the rich young man’s refusal to do what He suggested?
  Have I ever been involved with someone who asked for advice, then refused to take it?
  How do we feel/react when people refuse to accept advice we give them “for their own good”?
• How does my family/society treat those who choose to turn their backs on wealth and success in order to, say, work with the poor or disenfranchised?
  Would my loved ones be happy or dismayed if I made such a choice?
  Or:
  Would I be happy if my child made such a choice?
• All normal people feel bad if they do something bad.
  Have I ever felt bad about something good I DID NOT do?
• If we focus on the eye of the needle, trying to drag our particular camel through it, do we see it is a pretty discouraging responsibility? So how do we deal with those issues?
• What is the difference between an invitation and a command?
  If I were the young man, how would I have reacted?
  What does that tell me about my own spiritual life?
• How can we as individuals respond to God’s powerful gift?
• Nothing is impossible for God. When we invoke God’s power on our behalf, what do we humans usually ask for?
  What does Jesus seem to be saying we ought to ask for?

Meditations

A Meditation in the Dominican Style/Asking Questions:

What do you think the phrase “Kingdom of God” means? We have to think about this a lot, because many were taught that the kingdom of God only refers to heaven—the afterlife. But a more complete reading of scripture holds two images of the kingdom in a sort of tension: it is a world in this life which mirrors God’s ultimate plan for everyone, a world of justice peace and love. It is also life with God where all of these thing are ultimately completed. Beyond this life. Today’s passage does manage to conflate the two ideas: The Kingdom of God is now and not yet. If we only focus on getting into heaven, then we squander all our energies just trying to stay out of sin. Exhausting! But trying to make a better world is not exactly easy either.

This is where we need God. So I ask myself:
Where in my spiritual life have I focused all my energies?
What attachments do I need to free myself from to be free to love as Jesus did?
What if I cannot be perfectly good or perfectly generous of my time and treasure?
Do I ask God’s help in this mighty endeavor of a lifetime?
Do I understand that no matter where I am in my journey, God is right there with me helping my drag my particular camels through a narrow passage we call the saintly life?

A Meditation in the Augustinian Style/Relationship:

Adapted from Sacred Space, a service of the Irish Jesuits:

I allow myself time to think about what Jesus loves about me. This is not attraction or friendship, this is AGAPE (a love that wants only the best for me, and is unconditional). I rest in the knowledge that anything Jesus hopes for me, wants for me is my happiness and joy—and I don’t move on until I do!

Jesus may show me the one thing that is holding me back from freedom. I can walk away or I can ask for help to deal with it.

Can I assure Jesus that I adhere to his basic commandments? If not, which one is most difficult for me right now?

Is Jesus asking more of me—a loving concern for my poorer neighbors that gives generously without counting the cost? Taking the extra time to talk to someone in my family or friend circle who is lonely—needy and maybe annoyingly so, yes, but also lonely? Jesus does not invite me to mediocrity. I need to challenge myself a little.

He asks everything but he does it with great love. What is Jesus asking of me right now? What is my answer? Do I realize he loves me no matter what my answer is?

Speak to Jesus about your response to his invitation; speak to him also about your recognition of his great love.

Poetic Reflection:

The rich young man was asked to “go further in”. What does Thomas Centollela (former Stegner fellow) say it means to do so?:

“At Big Rec”

A few hours spent in the dry rooms of the dying.
Then the walk home, and the sudden rain
comes hard, and you want it coming hard,
you want it hitting you in the forehead
like anointment, blessing all the days
that otherwise would be dismissed
as business as usual. Now you’re ready
to lean on the rail above the empty diamonds
where, in summer, the ballplayers wait patiently
for one true moment more alive than all the rest.
Now you’re ready for the ancient religion of dogs,
that unleashed romp through the wildness, responding
To no one’s liturgy but the field’s and the rain’s.
You’ve come this far, but you need to live further in.
You need to slip into the blind man for a while,
tap along with his cane past the market stalls
and take in, as if they were abandoned,
the little blue crabs which within an hour will be eaten.
You have to become large enough to accommodate
all the small lives that otherwise would be forgotten.
You have to raise yourself to the power of ten.
Love more, require less, love without regard
For form. You have to live further in.

Closing Prayer

Lord, your world is so wide, so big, and my heart is often so small, so narrow. Help me to focus less on sin and staying out of it, and more on love and staying in it.