Homily 28th Sunday OT 13th October 2024

The scripture readings this weekend can lead to some very sobering reflection. In St. Paul’s words from the second reading, “Nothing is concealed from him, all lies bare and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must render an account.”  Moving into the company of God is like running into a two-edged sword. In Paul’s very graphic, almost grim imagery, a sword that leaves us open, split apart.

In the Gospel Christ is approached by a young man who asks a very common, very human question. “What do I have to do to be saved?” There is no reason to assume that this questioner was anything but a good man. He addresses Christ in the same vein, “Good teacher.” And then the two-edged sword is drawn.

Christ focuses first on the area with which his questioner would be comfortable: external behaviour, keeping the rules, don’t kill people, don’t lie, don’t steal.

But it was a reassuring focus for the questioner. It was a costume in which he could clothe himself fairly confidently. “I’ve done all that, ever since I was a child.” And doubtless he had.

Then the heat of that exchange, a moment of genuinely divine revelation. The questioner was about to find himself in the presence of someone who saw him as God sees him. To Christ the man’s weakness, his fear, his guilt was laid bare. And it just didn’t matter. Far from rejecting or scolding the man, the Gospel says that Christ looked at him with love and invited him to move in closer, to set aside the dearest of his costumes, that of a successful, wealthy man. With all the status and influence that carries with it.

But, he couldn’t do it. So he moved away, to where he could wear his masks and his costumes much more comfortably. He must have done so knowing that Christ was not going to choose him, He never does. So the Gospel says he moved away sadly, knowing that something important, something divine had just happened in his life, and he had missed it.

So, a complex, demanding passage. As complex and demanding as is the life of faith. This age-old choice, which Solomon, Paul, and Jesus made in one direction and the rich young man in another, confronts us too – ever more perhaps, in our society which posits the underlying principal that worth really does come from material wealth, from the size of our home, the cost of our car, the amount of our investments.

Christianity challenges us to change not only ourselves, but even our capitalist system when it is solely market driven, heartless, and materialist. What do we want? Wealth or wisdom? True value or price? An understanding of the full dimensions of human life, or only what they appear? Before God, we shall be held responsible to return love for love. Our actions and words will define who we are.

Fr Andrew