20181014
LIFE OF WISDOM AS A
LIFE LIVED IN DETACHMENT THROUGH ATTACHMENT TO JESUS
14 OCTOBER,
2018, Sunday, 28th Week, Ordinary Time
Readings at Mass
Liturgical Colour:
Green.
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First reading
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Wisdom 7:7-11 ©
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I esteemed Wisdom more than sceptres or
thrones
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I prayed, and understanding was given me;
I entreated, and the spirit of Wisdom came
to me.
I esteemed her more than sceptres and
thrones;
compared with her, I held riches as
nothing.
I reckoned no priceless stone to be her
peer,
for compared with her, all gold is a pinch
of sand,
and beside her silver ranks as mud.
I loved her more than health or beauty,
preferred her to the light,
since her radiance never sleeps.
In her company all good things came to me,
at her hands riches not to be numbered.
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Responsorial Psalm
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Psalm 89(90):12-17 ©
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Fill us with your love
so that we may rejoice.
Make us know the shortness of our life
that we may gain wisdom of
heart.
Lord, relent! Is your anger for ever?
Show pity to your servants.
Fill us with your love
so that we may rejoice.
In the morning, fill us with your love;
we shall exult and rejoice all
our days.
Give us joy to balance our affliction
for the years when we knew
misfortune.
Fill us with your love
so that we may rejoice.
Show forth your work to your servants;
let your glory shine on their
children.
Let the favour of the Lord be upon us:
give success to the work of
our hands.
Fill us with your love
so that we may rejoice.
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Second reading
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Hebrews 4:12-13 ©
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The word of God cuts more finely than a
double-edged sword
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The word of God is something alive and
active: it cuts like any double-edged sword but more finely: it can slip
through the place where the soul is divided from the spirit, or joints from the
marrow; it can judge the secret emotions and thoughts. No created thing can
hide from him; everything is uncovered and open to the eyes of the one to whom
we must give account of ourselves.
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Gospel Acclamation
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Mt11:25
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Alleluia, alleluia!
Blessed are you, Father,
Lord of heaven and earth,
for revealing the mysteries of the kingdom
to mere children.
Alleluia!
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Or:
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Mt5:3
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Alleluia, alleluia!
How happy are the poor in spirit:
theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Alleluia!
EITHER:
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Gospel
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Mark 10:17-30 ©
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Give everything you own to the poor, and follow me
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Jesus was setting out on a journey when a
man ran up, knelt before him and put this question to him, ‘Good master, what
must I do to inherit eternal life?’ Jesus said to him, ‘Why do you call me
good? No one is good but God alone. You know the commandments: You must not
kill; You must not commit adultery; You must not steal; You must not bring
false witness; You must not defraud; Honour your father and mother.’ And he
said to him, ‘Master, I have kept all these from my earliest days.’ Jesus
looked steadily at him and loved him, and he said, ‘There is one thing you
lack. Go and sell everything you own and give the money to the poor, and you
will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.’ But his face fell at these
words and he went away sad, for he was a man of great wealth.
Jesus
looked round and said to his disciples, ‘How hard it is for those who have
riches to enter the kingdom of God!’ The disciples were astounded by these
words, but Jesus insisted, ‘My children,’ he said to them ‘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 a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.’ They were more
astonished than ever. ‘In that case’ they said to one another ‘who can be
saved?’ Jesus gazed at them. ‘For men’ he said ‘it is impossible, but not for
God: because everything is possible for God.’
Peter
took this up. ‘What about us?’ he asked him. ‘We have left everything and
followed you.’ Jesus said, ‘I tell you solemnly, there is no one who has left house,
brothers, sisters, father, children or land for my sake and for the sake of the
gospel who will not be repaid a hundred times over, houses, brothers, sisters,
mothers, children and land – not without persecutions – now in this
present time and, in the world to come, eternal life.’
LIFE OF WISDOM AS A LIFE LIVED IN
DETACHMENT THROUGH ATTACHMENT TO JESUS
SCRIPTURE READINGS: [ WIS 7:7-11; HEB 4:12-13; MK 10:17-30 ]
Man has an insatiable
thirst for everything. Underlying the pursuits of every person is his
desire to escape his emptiness in life. He might own many things; he might have many
so-called friends; he might be laughing loudly; yet deep down inside him, he
feels empty, lonely and poor. That is why he is restless and cannot rest
until he is satisfied. This is precisely the dilemma of the rich man and
ours as well. Like him, we are all seeking the fullness of life.
But the problem is that nothing seems to satisfy us and make us complete. We
try to find life in some ways. Basically, there are two ways to life; through
the wisdom of the world, the way of foolishness, or through the
wisdom of God, the way of Jesus.
Let us begin with the
way of the wisdom of the world.
In this way, there are two approaches. Firstly, most people seek
fullness of life through fame, wealth and prestige. The rich man in
today’s gospel symbolizes all those who are rich, powerful and successful in
life. According to the standards of the world, they should be the
happiest people on earth. But the truth is that they are not. In
fact, many suffer from deep-seated insecurity, as exemplified in their rocky relationships
and family life. They are often lonely and misunderstood. Something
seems to be lacking. Those of us who have supposedly made our mark in
life would be able to identify with the sentiments of the rich man.
It is clear therefore that being rich and famous is no guarantee of
happiness. More often than not, it leads to real misery.
Realizing that fame,
power and wealth alone cannot bring true happiness, others seek happiness by living a
moral life, just like the rich man in today’s gospel. This is the
second approach of the way of the foolish. It is the path of moralism or
legality. They try to be faithful to the teachings of their religion, or
at least to their conscience. Catholics and non-Christians alike, including
agnostics, all feel consoled so long as they do not do harm to others.
Such a moral life is indeed commendable, for we are told in the gospel that
when the rich man said that he had fulfilled all the commandments, Jesus
“looked steadily at him and loved him.” Nevertheless, it is obvious to Jesus
that a life of morality, while noble, cannot assure us true happiness. At
most, it can give us a clear conscience. But it is not sufficient to make
us feel alive. For those who are not careful, they might even fall into
legalism and become self-righteous.
But both ways, the way of earthly pursuits
and the way of morality, did not bring the rich man in the gospel happiness in
life. If only worldly success and a good conscience are
sufficient to sustain us in existence but not keep us truly alive, then what
can make us truly alive? The answer given by Jesus to the rich
man in the gospel was simply this: “There is one thing you lack. Go
and sell everything you own and give the money to the poor, and you will have
treasure in heaven, then come and follow me.” This, then, is the
way of the wisdom of God. It is the path of detachment and compassion.
Yes, what the rich man lacked and what
we are lack is simply this: the spirit of detachment. The rich
man was attached to both his money and his righteousness. He was not
truly free. That was why he went away sad. Even though he was rich,
he could not be happy. Like him, we all have our attachments in
life. Some of us are attached to our loved ones, some to their career,
others to their vices, still others to their pride and reputation. So
long as we are attached to anything or any person in life, we have lost our
freedom to love and to be available. This inability to be detached is the
cause of all our emptiness and misery. That is why the rich man “went
away sad, for he was a man of great wealth.” The irony of life is
that the richer we get, the poorer we become. The richer we are, the more
we are enslaved to our riches; but the poor have nothing to cling on to, and
that is why they are totally free to receive anything that God wants to give
them.
Consequently, the command to give
everything to the poor must not be simply understood as surrendering our
material wealth to the poor. Material wealth in itself is neither
good nor bad. It depends whether we are enslaved to our wealth or whether
we use them for the good and service of humankind. If our happiness is
dependent on external factors, our lives will always be full of
insecurity. True happiness is not determined by material and personal
wealth or living a legalistic life. In both, we are slaves to some
external reality. Such a kind of life robs us of our joy since that life
becomes one of unending anxiety – the materialistic person lives in fear that
his wealth, power and status might one day be taken away, whereas the
legalistic person is always burdened by having to observe all the commandments
of God for fear of God’s punishment.
What is absolutely
necessary for happiness is to have an interior spirit of genuine freedom from
everything.The apparent difficult
command of Jesus is simply to help us to break away totally from the chains
that bind us. Unless we surrender everything to God, we cannot use
everything we have freely for the service of love. It is only when we
surrender them and no longer consider them our own, that we become free to love
authentically. Detachment is therefore a pre-requisite for the work of compassion.
The paradox of life is that the moment we let go of all that we have, that is
when we possess everything. Indeed, this is the promise of Jesus to His
disciples. By surrendering their attachment to their families, they become
friends to all; by giving up the need to have anything, the whole world becomes
theirs. Compassion therefore makes us one with God and with all.
This is the only way to
happiness or eternal life because
if we really want to have eternal life, which is the life of God, then we must
realize that this life consists of His Freedom in love. The nature of God
is that He is total freedom and His freedom is the ability to love
totally. The corollary of this is that if we want to share in the life of
God, we must be free to love and be able to exercise this freedom for
love. Without the freedom to love and the power to love freely, we cannot
be happy in life. For it is only in freedom and love that we find true
joy.
Even if we realize this, many of
us still do not have the courage to let go. Like the rich man, we
know what is to be done but we feel that the command of Jesus is simply beyond
us. What Jesus seems to be asking of us is just too much! Just like
the disciples, our initial response is astonishment, then despair. For
many of us, such a life is only for the reserved few. Yes, most of us
would readily join in the chorus of the disciples, “In that case, who can be
saved?”
Jesus understands our
frustrations, for
He said, “For men, it is impossible, but not for God because everything is
possible for God.” That is why Jesus did not simply tell the rich man to
give away his wealth. No, he said, “then come and follow me.” That
is to say, we do not simply detach ourselves from things and people. It is
too painful. There will be such a big hole and emptiness in our lives if
we do. We need to fill that emptiness with something else. We need
to fill that emptiness with the love for Jesus and the love of Jesus.
Indeed, the key to true detachment lies in our attachment to Jesus and
His life. The more we fall in love with Jesus and His way of life,
the more we find ourselves able to live in a spirit of detachment.
Concretely, what does it
mean to follow Jesus?
First and foremost, the second reading tells us that we must contemplate on the
Word. It is the word of God that reveals the truth of ourselves and of
life. Unless we see the wisdom of the life and the path of Jesus, we will
not surrender ourselves to God. Unless, we contemplate on His life, we
will not see the wisdom of what Jesus is inviting us to. And then we
would end up just like the rich man, leaving Jesus, which means living life
sad. Yes, in attaching ourselves to Jesus, we will come to discover Him
more and more; why He is the Wisdom and the Word of God that the first two
scripture readings proclaim.
By being with Jesus, we
will come understand deeper the reality of His teachings and the true meaning
of life and how life should be lived.
That is why the more we become attached to Jesus, the more we too want to
follow Him in a life of service and love in freedom. And very soon, we
will come to experience His kind of life, freedom in love, as the greatest
wealth of life. This is what truly brings life, when we love and serve
freely. And for those who are in love with the whole of humankind and in
love with love and life itself, they have everything even if they have nothing
that the world considers to be of value.
Yes, Jesus lived such a full life
simply because His whole life was lived in love. He could love
totally and freely because He transcended poverty and riches, success and
failure. We too can enjoy this life when we free ourselves to love our fellow
human beings and to love God. This, then, is the eternal life Jesus is
offering us today. This life is nothing less than the life of God.
Written
by The Most Rev William Goh, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Singapore © All
Rights Reserved
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