Twenty-eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time Year B (OCTOBER 11, 2015)
The man in the Gospel reading is seeking wisdom, and asks Jesus THE question. Not merely a
good insightful question, but THE question. “What must I do to inherit eternal life?”
It’s so easy to get ourselves wrapped up in the day-to-day activities of life, being so immersed in
worldly pursuits that we fail to reflect on what really matters. Which is trying to discern how do
we get from here, where we are today, to there, which is heaven.
We all should be asking THE question from time to time. The Gospel reading today is a
reminder of what should be most important in our lives.
I think the dialog between Jesus and the man is very interesting and gives us some important
insights. After the man asks “what must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus points him towards the
10 Commandments, God’s moral law. Jesus gives the 10 Commandments as the starting point
for the man’s spiritual growth, not the last step of his journey.
Back in June I heard a theologian give an analogy that I think might help illustrate this. During
his talk he told the audience that he was a great basketball player. After the chuckling from the
crowd subsided. He confidently repeated, “I am a great basketball player and I’ll tell you why.”
He then went on to say. “When I have the ball I don’t travel, I don’t double dribble, and I don’t’
step out of bounds. I never get called for a 3 second violation, I don’t foul, and if LaBron would
have had me as a teammate, Cleveland would have won the NBA Championship last season.
See, I am a great basketball player.”
Obviously he was exaggerating to make a point. The point he was making was that just knowing
the rules for playing basketball doesn’t make you a great basketball player. That’s just the
starting point; it takes more than knowing the basics to be great, and it takes more than just
knowing the 10 Commandments to be Holy.
Jesus when talking with the man knew that following the Commandments was the basics, the
starting point for his spiritual growth. And what was the man’s response when Jesus listed for
him some of the Commandments? He responded that he had been observing them from his
youth. Even though he was merely doing the basics, Jesus looked at him and loved him.
I’m sure you’ve all heard the saying: “God loves us where we’re at.” Which is true. We see this
in the interaction between Jesus and the man. But there’s a second half to the saying that often
goes unsaid. It is, “God loves us where we’re at, but not so little he wants us to stay there.” And
this is why Jesus, after hearing the man tell him he had been observing the Commandments from
his youth, tells the man, “You are lacking one thing.”
Yes, the man had the basics down and Jesus loved him for that, but Jesus didn’t want him to stay
there. Jesus wanted Him to take the next step, to take his spiritual life, his game, to the next level.
Jesus doesn’t want the man, or us for that matter, to be merely in the game. He wants us all to be
great. Jesus is calling us to Holiness. So Jesus tells the man “Go, sell what you have, and give to
the poor.”
And what was the man’s response? His face fell and he went away sad. This story appears in all
three synoptic Gospels, Matthew, Mark and Luke, and it’s the only encounter that I’m aware of
where someone who was personally invited by Jesus to follow Him … decided not to. The man
in the Gospel reading wasn’t willing to take that next step in his spiritual journey. There was
something that the man would not, or could not let go of.
Twenty-eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time Year B (OCTOBER 11, 2015)
We are all on a spiritual journey. Our lives are our spiritual journey. Jesus desires us to be
disciples, to know more than just the rules of the game, He is asking us to really play the game,
personally inviting us to be great, to be Holy.
All of this should prompt us to ask ourselves, “What is it today that I am clinging to, unable to let
go of, that makes me like the man in the Gospel reading? What is keeping me from taking that
next step in my spiritual journey, what is it that is keeping me from greatness?”
As Pope Benedict said in 2007, “The world offers you comfort. But you were not made for
comfort. You were made for greatness”.