28th Sunday in Ordinary Time, October 11, 2015
October 14, 2015 Father De Celles Homily
28th Sunday in Ordinary Time
October 11, 2015
Homily by Fr. John De Celles
St. Raymond of Peñafort Catholic Church
Springfield, VA
Today’s Gospel reading is one of the most rich and powerful in all of scripture.
One of the most striking parts is Jesus’ command to the rich young man:
“Go, sell what you have, and give to the poor.”
Many people tend to focus on this when they read this passage,
and understandably so,
especially as it begins a rather lengthy discussion
about the difficulty of having riches and going to heaven.
But before Jesus goes there he first answers the man’s question:
“what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
with a very simple answer:
“You know the commandments…”
and he precedes to list the 10 commandments.
In other words: to go to heaven you must begin by keeping the commandments.
It’s only when the man says: ‘I’ve always kept these commandments’
that Jesus says:
“Go sell everything you have and give it to the poor.”
Nowadays people kind of turn this on its head.
They think, well if I do good things for the poor and needy,
then those pesky commandments really aren’t that important.
“Would Jesus really care if someone is having pre-marital, or extra-marital sex,
or homosexual sex,
–that silly “you shall not commit adultery” commandment–
wouldn’t he really care more about me feeding the poor?”
Even though Jesus says, clearly, if you want eternal life:
“you shall not commit adultery.”
Some people want to think you can be
greedy and dishonest and deceptive in business,
as long as you give some of your profits to good causes,
even though Jesus says, if you want eternal life:
“you shall not steal…you shall not bear false witness.”
And some people even think you can
abort babies in their mothers’ wombs;
But the very first commandment Jesus cites as necessary to gain eternal life is:
“you shall not kill”!
This kind of attitude that acts of kindness to the needy
sort of override the commandments
reminds me of some of the medieval abuses
involved in the illicit “selling of indulgences.”
Now encouraging people to do charitable acts,
including giving money to the poor
or even to build a beautiful church,
is in itself a good thing
—so the Church used to grant indulgences to encourage these things.
But too often in the middle ages,
individual priests or bishops would abuse this practice by, in effect,
marketing them as a way to buy your way into heaven
—no matter how many terrible sins you had committed,
they said, “you give so much money
to building this church,
and you go straight to heaven.”
The Church had always regularly condemned this practice, but there it was
—some priests, bishops and even cardinals did it anyway.
This false notion of Christian charity also ignores one other fact.
We need to remember that before Jesus tells the rich young man
“give to the poor”
He tells him to “sell what you have”
—or as a more exact translation would put it:
“sell everything you have.”
This is very different from someone
who writes a check to charity at the end of the month,
when all the other bills or paid,
or someone who considers paying his taxes as his gift to charity,
much less a politician who thinks giving other people’s tax money
to the needy is charity.
“Sell everything.”
Now, that’s troubling:
does Jesus mean we all have to sell everything we have
and give it to the poor?
It’s interesting, in his response to the rich young man
Jesus doesn’t list all the commandments,
but only the ones that apply specifically to loving your neighbor:
“honor your father and your mother.”
“You shall not kill;…commit adultery;…steal;
…bear false witness;…
Not a word about the first 3 commandments that refer exclusively to loving God:
“I am the LORD your God: You shall have no other gods before me”;
“You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain”;
and “Remember to keep holy the LORD’S Day.”
Is this some sort of oversight or mistake on Jesus’ part?
Or is Jesus saying loving your neighbor is good enough
–so the first 3 commandments
about loving God aren’t that important:
–for example it doesn’t matter if we have false Gods…
Clearly not.
Then what is Jesus doing?
I think he was setting the rich man up.
Look at what happens.
When the rich young man first approaches Jesus he asks him:
“Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
And Jesus replies:
“Why do you call me good?
No one is good but God alone.”
It almost seems to be a non sequitur, or even rude.
But Jesus is simply trying to make a point.
The rich young man sees Jesus as a “good teacher,”
and as Matthew’s account of this indicates he asks
“what good deed must I do to have eternal life?”
He sees Jesus as a good man who can teach him what good deeds he,
as a man, can do for other men to gain eternal life.
But Jesus says: it’s not enough to do good things for your neighbor
—you have to begin by doing good things
for the only one who is truly good—God.
So Jesus, who is God the Son, looks at the young man, and Scripture says he
“loved him, and said to him: “You are lacking in one thing.
Go, sell what you have, and give to the poor
….then come, follow me.” “
Jesus, God, loved him and said, “love me…follow me.”
Notice Jesus says “you lack one thing,” but then he lists three things to do.
So what is the one thing the man lacks?
It comes at the end: “follow me.”
But one thing also stands in the way: he is too attached to all the things he has.
Jesus has looked at him, as an individual,
and recognized that while he’s kept the commandments
regarding loving his neighbor,
he’s broken the first 3 commandments regarding loving God,
especially the first, which sums up all the rest:
“I am the LORD your God: You shall have no other gods before me.
The rich young man has made things and money more important than God,
and until he gets rid of those things
and loves God first, above everything else,
he cannot have eternal life.
So you see, contrary to what too many people think,
the point is not so much “to give to the poor”—as good as that is–
but to get rid of anything and everything
that comes between us and truly loving God,
and following Jesus, God the Son incarnate.
That’s why you’ll notice that Jesus doesn’t mention the poor again in this text.
He goes on to explain that:
“How hard it is for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!”
And again:
“It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle
than for one who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.”
And again:
“Amen, I say to you, there is no one who has given up [something]
…. for my sake …who will not receive ….eternal life.”
But not one more word about the poor.
Now, don’t misunderstand me:
Jesus loved the poor,
and we’re supposed to love the poor—and help them.
But that’s just not the point of this story, or rather,
that’s only a secondary or perhaps tertiary point.
The main point of the story is first, keep the commandments:
if you don’t get the basics down, what good is all the rest?
This is true even in doing good works.
I mean, I suppose it’s nice to “save the whales”,
but what good is that if there are starving children down the block?
And it’s good to provide food for starving children,
but what good is that if you don’t protect their very right to life
–“you shall not kill”?
First, keep the commandments.
And in keeping the commandments
remember to begin with the first and most important:
the ones about loving God.
That means being willing to give up anything that comes between you and God.
For some of us, this means literally giving up everything we have
to become a religious sister or friar or monk, or, to some extent, a priest.
For others it means not being overwhelmed by economic worries
—especially when God has blessed you with some savings in the bank.
Or not being so distracted by working or buying or playing
that you don’t have time to come to church
—or to pray some time other than Sunday.
Or being unhesitatingly generous
with everyone God sends to you to help in their need.
And it’s not just limited to money.
How many of our personal habits, or maybe even entire lifestyles,
are offensive to God,
but we cling to them anyway
because they are more important to us than God.
You say, but father, I don’t know if I can do that.
Maybe you’ve tried from time to time,
you’ve made a resolve to love and follow Christ
and to keep His commandments.
But then you fall and get all caught up in all sorts of stuff
—whether it be sins or just too many possessions.
Sometimes it just seems impossible.
Sounds familiar.
“They were exceedingly astonished and said among themselves,
“Then who can be saved?””
Don’t worry—Jesus has that covered too:
“For man it is impossible, but not for God.
All things are possible for God.”
As we prepare ourselves to enter more deeply
into the mysteries of this Holy Mass,
look deep into your heart and ask yourself:
do I keep the commandments?
do I put money or things or habits or even people
in front of loving and serving God and following Christ?
or do I make excuses, or think I can just buy my way into heaven
by writing checks or doing something nice for somebody?
And as you do that, do not be discouraged by the times you’ve failed,
and do not give up.
Because God has not given up on you, and he can do anything.
And as he comes down to this altar in the Eucharist,
and you receive him in holy communion,
know that he has come to you to give you his own power, his grace,
to make what is otherwise impossible for you alone
eminently possible with him.
[“You are lacking in one thing.
Go, sell what you have, and give to the poor
and you will have treasure in heaven;
then come, follow me.”]