How sad! The man had
the wonders of the Lord right there in front of him. He could have become one of the Lord's closest
disciples. Jesus heard him say
that he had kept the commandments.
Jesus knew that he was a good man.
He loved him. But he also
knew that something was holding the man back. His possessions were the reason for his life. All his life he had worked hard to have
a lot, or, perhaps, he had been born into a wealthy family and had been falsely
taught that the family’s wealth would guarantee his happiness. The man thought
that he was on the top of society. Then he received a shock. True greatness was being offered to
him. Was he willing to change the
focus of his life? Was he willing
to step away from his material possessions? Evidently not. He left the Lord saddened[1].
We have been
raised in a society that values wealth above all else. We know that is not true. We know that
the love of our families, our children, and through them, our Lord, are our
real values, but we easily fall for the lie that happiness can be
purchased. We easily confuse our
wants with our needs.
We want too
much. We need very little. We want the big house, the expensive
car, expensive vacation, etc. But
we don't need all of that. And I
am not just speaking to you. I am speaking to myself. I just bought a new car. I
needed one, but I wanted a really nice one. The question I have to ask myself,
though, would be, if the new car gets damaged, or stolen, would I be terribly
upset? Probably, and that would be reasonable. But would I be destroyed? I certainly hope not. If the loss
of a material thing has an effect upon my basic attitude to life, then the
desire for the material has taken priority over the real need of my life. All I need is the Love of God. And it is there for me in so many ways,
none of which have to do with the quality of the wheels I am driving.
How about
you? What is it that would destroy you if you lost it? I am sure that there is plenty that
would upset you if a hurricane came through, and your house was gone. That's reasonable. But would you be destroyed if your
house were destroyed? Would you
wonder if life was worth living? I
know most of you well enough to know that would not be the case. You love your family far more than your
stuff. Your main concern would be
with them. And you love your God more than anything the world can come up
with. As long as you have him, you
have all you need.
But what if
the unthinkable were to happen?
What if we were to lose a loved one? This has certainly happened for many of us here. Parents have passed away, or your
spouse, a close friend, and the worst of all tragedies, perhaps a child has
died, if any of this were to happen to us, would we be destroyed? I have observed so many of you dealing
with the worst. You go through
deep grief, but you refuse to be destroyed. That is because you have what you really need. You have faith. We have faith. We have God. We entrust our loved ones to Him. He will care for them, and for us. We
may mourn and weep in this valley of tears, but we know that our pain here is
temporary when it is united to our faith in God.
Surely you
saw the Holy Father's visit to ground zero. I’m sure you have seen pictures of
it. There are 2 vast pools of water in the footprints of the two towers. On the
edges are the names of the 2,900+ lives that were lost. May be you noticed there
were no religious symbols. Not Stars of David, Moslem symbols or Crosses. Now,
I am sure that the designer was making a statement regarding renewal of life
through water, but the more I thought about it, the more I came to the
realization that without faith lives just wash away.
Solomon asked
for wisdom. So do we. We need the wisdom to allow our lives to be so centered
on Jesus Christ that no matter what challenges and even crises life throws at
us, we will still keep growing in His Love. What we need is the continual
growth of Christ’s Presence within us.
What we need is to grow so Christ like that His Life and our lives merge
so that we cannot see where He begins, and we end. What we need is to be made into an everlasting gift to the
Father. When we strive for this,
we strive for wisdom.
Why does God
love us? Why? He loves us because he sees the His Son
in us. The Father loves the Son
and all who belong to Him. What we
need is really a Whom. We need Jesus. We need Love. We need God. All three are the same •
[1] 28th Sunday of Ordinary Time
B, October 11, 2015. Readings: Wisdom 7:7-11; Responsorial Psalm 90:12-13,
14-15, 16-17; Hebrews 4:12-13; Mark 10:17-30.
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