Homily: 28th Sunday in Ordinary Time
October 13, 2024
My dear brothers and sisters, in the gospel reading of today, our Lord Jesus Christ teaches on the proper perspective of wealth, riches and material possessions. In this gospel reading, there are some statements of Jesus that may appear a little difficult in normal sense of evaluating the realities of this our earthly life. For instance, Jesus told the young man that came to him, ‘you lack one thing, go, sell what you own, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.” The man never followed Jesus again. Jesus continued and said, ‘children how hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.’ From Jesus’ statement, does it mean that the rich people are condemned to rot in hell? Does it mean that when someone labors hard to be successful in life, the person becomes an enemy of God? Does it mean that Christian ideal is poverty, hunger and nakedness?
We cannot deny that money, riches give immeasurable security of life. Without money we become homeless, without money, we cannot access education, healthcare, and other life comforts to a super satisfactory level. In the Church, we need money to build our churches and maintain them. However, even with all these evident unending advantages of the dollar in one’s pocket, we must not lose sight of the fact that man is a composite being. We are composed of body and soul and attention should be given to both aspects of our existence.
The pursuit of wealth becomes problematic when it is made an end in itself, when it becomes the isolated and only end point of our earthly existence. The truth is that whether the modern man wants to hear it or not, our earthly wellbeing is not the ultimate purpose of life. The final end of our existence is staying in peace with our creator. Prosperity, materials things of life, love for money has a lot of inherent dangers and temptations, that is why Jesus consistently warns. Material things can fix our hearts to this world that it can become difficult for us to think beyond them or see any other meaningful reality. Money can turn to be an idol that takes the place of God in our lives. We can become so obsessed with growing our wealth that we measure everything in terms of price and fail to see the true worth and value of any other thing apart from money. That was the major problem Judas Iscariot had, he knew the price and profit he could make by selling Jesus, but he never knew the worth and value of His Master and Savior Jesus.
Brothers and sisters, riches, wealth remain a blessing from God when it is put in its proper perspective. And what is this proper perspective? First, when the means of acquisition is genuine and honest and not fraudulent. When we maneuver, cheat, lie, trample on others for an unjust accumulation of wealth, it becomes now the inordinate love of money which is the root of all evil. We are also called to use money properly to support ourselves, our families, for the service of God and humanity, eschewing all selfishness. In the parable of the rich man and Lazarus, the rich man became lost because of his selfish squandering of his wealth. A blessing to us from God is also a blessing we can extend to other brothers and sisters of ours in need.
So, brothers and sisters, as we celebrate Thanksgiving today for God’s abundant blessings, may we always remember, that our life should be a thanksgiving sacrifice to God. From God’s blessing on us we should support ourselves, serve God and humanity. Our life should be a blessing to the world and not a curse to humanity.
