Please click here for a printable PDF version of this document.    

Those last few sentences of the Gospel certainly, I think, deserve a whole homily to themselves, but I am going to, rather, look at just two things, first of all, the incident with the rich man and then the comment that Jesus made upon this incident.

The rich man, clearly a good man, a righteous man, a man who is doing his best to observe the law of God, the kind of man that you would be very happy to have as a neighbor, a man who would never deliberately hurt anyone, a respected member of society.... And there, perhaps, was his great weakness. He was comfortable in being respectable. He was comfortable in observing all the “thou shalt nots” of the Bible. But when asked to step beyond that fence of respectability (the shalt nots) and reach out and consider the needs of the poor, he just could not bring himself to do it. This man, in effect, was saying to Jesus, “I have never done any harm.” And Jesus, in effect, was saying to him, “That’s wonderful, but what good have you done? What positive contribution have you made to the welfare of humanity with all the wealth you have at your disposal?” You see, a respectable life, an honorable life, a good life, may consist in negativity, in not doing any harm. But a Christian life consists in positive action in many directions, but principally in favor of the needy and the most vulnerable members of our society.

Now, as for the comment that Jesus made on this incident, how hard it is for those who have wealth to enter into the kingdom of God, it really surprised the disciples. In fact, the gospel says that they were amazed at this. Why? Well, we have to remember that among the Jews at that time, wealth was considered, not only a blessing from God, but actually it was considered as a sign that the wealthy person was a really just person, a really good person, a person who was actually loved by God in a very special way. And the poor were despised. They were considered as “They must have done something wrong. They must have sinned if they are poor.” And, you know, there are Christians today who have that same kind of world view, that same view of humanity, that if you are poor, you must have done something wrong. It’s your own fault. It’s your own fault if you are homeless.

A few years ago, one of our presidents, who shall be nameless, in speaking about poverty in Central and South America, remarked that all those people have to do is to pull themselves up by their bootstraps. The problem was they didn’t have any boots. This certainly was not the attitude or the viewpoint of Jesus. You know he states very emphatically that the poor would inherit the kingdom. His first priority (Just open the gospels anywhere.) was concern for the poor and the disadvantaged, the outcast, sinners and so on, those people. You might say the “wreck” of humanity. That was his concern. Now, this did not mean that he rejected those who were wealthy. Some of his friends were rather well off. There was that little man Zacchaeus. Remember him, the superintendent of taxes who couldn’t see Jesus because of the crowd, ran ahead and climbed up the tree? Jesus came along and saw him and looked up and said, “Zacchaeus, come down. I want to stay in your house today.” He was a wealthy, very influential person. Then, there was Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimethea. So, Jesus did not reject wealthy people, but he did very much stress the dangers of wealth, that could make a person very selfish, very very selfish, hardness of heart and so on. So, Jesus saw wealth as something to be shared, as a gift from God, indeed as a great responsibility.

Well, you may be sitting there and saying, “So what? I’m not wealthy.” I don’t think any of us in this church today could be described as very wealthy. And I don’t know your personal, individual pattern of giving, of sharing whatever you may have. There may be some who actually do follow the biblical ideal of tithing, which means giving ten percent of what you have back to God either through your church or through some other charitable organization. I remember very well my youngest brother graduated from engineering school and his very first job, as a young engineer, was with the Shell Oil Company out in the Persian Gulf in the Kingdom of Quatar. And he said it was a real cultural shock for him to be landed in this Muslim country. But it was also a cultural shock for him when he found out that one of the other young engineers, from Texas, ten thousand miles from home, that this young man, as soon as he got his paycheck, would sit down and write a personal check for ten percent of his salary to send back to his Baptist Church in Texas. That was a cultural shock for a young Irishman!

There is one thing that I do know, and that is that this community, as a community, is very, very generous indeed. You share your time. You share your talents and you share your treasure, and you share them in abundance. After one of the earlier Masses today someone shared with me that it is sometimes much harder to share time and to share talents than it is to write a check. And many of you share your time in abundance and very very generously. You share your talents with the community.

So, in light of all of this, what did the gospel say to us today? I suggest that it is asking us to examine our basic attitudes towards wealth, and to ask ourselves some questions, for example, “Do we possess things or are we possessed by things?” Are things more important than people? Are we prepared to make personal sacrifices for the sake of those who are less well-off than we are? Are we just comfortable in our respectability, or are we actively engaged with the world that is around us? What is our attitude towards homeless people, towards poor people? Do we blame them? Do we say, “Oh, well, they are just lazy?”

The first reading today sang the praises of wisdom, the gift of the Holy Spirit. And I certainly think we do need wisdom. We need the Holy Spirit to be with us, to be truly, truly honest with ourselves in looking at these issues. “I pleaded and the spirit of wisdom came to me.” I pleaded.... We have to plead with the Holy Spirit to be with us. Jesus said that, with God, all things are possible, even the most difficult demands of Christianity. The gospel tells us that this rich man missed a golden opportunity to be a disciple of Jesus. And he realized it. The gospel said that “he went away sad.” It would have been hard for him. It would have been very hard for him, but it would have been possible. So, let us be generous of spirit. It may be hard but not impossible with God’s help. Let us respond generously to the invitation of Jesus, “Come. Follow Me.” Amen.