Homily, 10-13-24; Sunday of the 28th Week in Ordinary Time, Cycle B:
“Go, sell what you have, and give to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven.”
We have a lot of images of Jesus in the Bible. We see Him portrayed, for example, as a shepherd, a bridegroom, a lamb, a rock, a vine, and as bread. But today we hear a bit of imagery that doesn’t seem to fit with all the others; it has a violent nature to it. This morning we hear in our reading from the Letter to the Hebrews that Jesus, the Word of God, is the sharpest of two-edged swords. So much for being the gentle shepherd who guides us, or the loving bridegroom who takes cares of His bride, the Church, or the innocent lamb who goes quietly to be slaughtered—sacrificed for our sins. Jesus as a sword reminds us that we need to fear the Lord; and fear of the Lord is one of the gifts of the Holy Spirit.
Jesus is the sword that can cut through all our pretenses. He can quickly separate our actions from their intentions. We cannot hide from His penetrating vision of our souls. He not only sees what we are like on the outside; He knows how we look on the inside.
We need to be aware that God sees and knows all that we do, all of the time. It’s not enough just to be good when others are around to see our actions. We need to strive to have clean hearts, to have good intentions for our actions even when no one else is there to see, because God sees what is in our hearts. He cannot be fooled. It is important to do good things for the right intentions—because we love God and love our neighbor.
The rich young man in our gospel story was a good man. He claimed to have obeyed all the commandments since his youth. Jesus, however, calls him to be a great man. The sharp two-edged sword of Jesus cuts to the man’s heart and reveals that his love of his possessions is interfering with his ability to completely surrender his life. As a good Jewish man, he obeyed the commandments regarding love of neighbor. But did he do it out of obligation, and not necessarily out of love? Jesus challenges him to set aside the material things in which he trusted and he will be rewarded with treasures in heaven; this will make him great in God’s eyes.
Jesus goes on to contrast the rich young man with His disciples. In scripture, we often see the weaknesses and failings of the apostles; we know that they do not always act perfectly. But the disciples acted with good intentions; they surrendered their lives and families to follow Jesus. They maybe didn’t always do good things, but they did great things. And Jesus tells them that they will receive much in return, that they will have eternal life.
A couple of weeks ago, my friend, Fr. Jean Ikanga, visited us here at Immaculate Conception for the Sunday morning Masses. I first met Fr. Jean during my last assignment at SS. Cyril & Methodius parish. He is a priest from the Democratic Republic of the Congo who came to the US to study to become a medical doctor. His initial studies took place at U of D Mercy and, while he was in Detroit, he would frequently say Mass at St. Cyril’s, and I often had the opportunity to assist him. He went on to finish his studies at Emory University in Atlanta. And when his studies were complete, he was faced with a difficult choice. He was presented with many opportunities to stay in the United States and live a comfortable life here as a doctor. But ultimately he chose to return to serve his people back in the Congo, where he would live in less than desirable conditions. When I heard him present his struggle and announce his decision in one of his final homilies at St. Cyril’s, I was greatly moved and inspired by his commitment. I believe he is truly building up treasure in Heaven. Fr. Jean would like to once again express his thanks to our parishioners who have contributed to the Friends of the Congo to help make his dream of bringing medical care to the tiny village where he grew up a reality.
We have many good examples of making great sacrifices to follow Jesus’ call. We have Fr. Jean. We have religious men and women who take vows of poverty. We have priests who give up having families of their own so that they can be our spiritual fathers. But, what about the rest of us? How will we fare at our judgement? Are we willing to make sacrifices along our journeys to truly follow Jesus? Do we put things of this world ahead of treasures in Heaven?
We are only stewards of our earthly wealth. Our wealth does not belong to us. When we are called to make an accounting at the end of our lives, all we will have left are the spiritual rewards we have earned on our journey. What we get when we approach the gates of Heaven will depend on how we used the things of earth. If we are generous with our wealth, and share it with the poor and with the Church as good stewards, we will be rewarded. I ran across an interesting quote attributed to a rabbi who said: “The rich help the poor in this world, but the poor help the rich in the world to come.” The poor will be our advocates, they will be favorable witnesses on our behalf, when we are called to make an account of our life before the good and just Judge.
It’s also good to stop and remind ourselves not to judge others. Unlike God, we do not wield a sharp two-edged sword that allows us to see what is in the hearts of others; we do not know their intentions. We see only what others allow us to see. Some that appear to be holy and follow all the commandments have hearts that are not pure. Some that appear to be sinners are fighting internal struggles, fighting temptations that we can’t understand, trying to improve themselves because of their love of God. We cannot judge others intentions.
We, ourselves, need to have pure intentions based on love of God and love of neighbor. God is the only one that knows all of us as we truly are. Others can fool us. We can fool others. But no one can fool God.