Material Wealth; Celibacy

Homily
TWENTY-EIGHTH SUNDAY OF THE YEAR (B)
15 OCTOBER 2006

Wisdom 7: 7 - 11

[Wis 7:7] ...I prayed, and prudence was given me; I pleaded and the spirit of Wisdom came to me.
[Wis 7:8] I preferred her to scepter and throne, And deemed riches nothing in comparison with her,
[Wis 7:9] nor did I liken any priceless gem to her; Because all gold, in view of her, is a little sand, and before her, silver is to be accounted mire.
[Wis 7:10] Beyond health and comeliness I loved her, And I chose to have her rather than the light, because the splendor of her never yields to sleep.
[Wis 7:11] Yet all good things together came to me in her company, and countless riches at her hands.

Mark 10: 17 - 30

[Mark 10:17] As (Jesus) was setting out on a journey, a man ran up, knelt down before him, and asked him, "Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?"
[Mark 10:18] Jesus answered him, "Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone.
[Mark 10:19] You know the commandments: 'You shall not kill; you shall not commit adultery; you shall not steal; you shall not bear false witness; you shall not defraud; honor your father and your mother.'"
[Mark 10:20] He replied and said to him, "Teacher, all of these I have observed from my youth."
[Mark 10:21] Jesus, looking at him, loved him and said to 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."
[Mark 10:22] At that statement his face fell, and he went away sad, for he had many possessions.
[Mark 10:23] Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, "How hard it is for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!"
[Mark 10:24] The disciples were amazed at his words. So Jesus again said to them in reply, "Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God!
[Mark 10:25] 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."
[Mark 10:26] They were exceedingly astonished and said among themselves, "Then who can be saved?"
[Mark 10:27] Jesus looked at them and said, "For human beings it is impossible, but not for God. All things are possible for God."
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[Mark 10:28] Peter began to say to him, "We have given up everything and followed you."
[Mark 10:29] Jesus said, "Amen, I say to you, there is no one who has given up house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands for my sake and for the sake of the gospel
[Mark 10:30] who will not receive a hundred times more now in this present age: houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and eternal life in the age to come.
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1. Material Wealth

The first part of today's Gospel presents Jesus' warnings on the danger to our souls which arises from the possession of material wealth.

Anxiety over temporal necessities leads to a clinging to material wealth for security instead of looking for it from God. This is a form of idolatry, because it is placing reliance on a creature in place of reliance on God, as Our Lord states in Matthew 6:

[Mat 6:24] "No one can serve two masters. He will either hate one and love the other, or be devoted to one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.

By "mammon" is here meant the idol of the love of money.

It is incumbent on the Christian not to become enamored of the present life, for here we have no lasting home. We are reminded of this when we experience setbacks and sometimes tragedy. We are truly pilgrims; we are in the "wayfaring state".

Imagine a steep cliff atop which lies a vast collection of priceless treasures. Imagine further that the way to the top is afforded by a ladder rising up alongside the cliff. The wayfarer begins to climb the ladder...while he is climbing, he cannot see the treasure on top, he knows that it is there only by faith. Suppose he stopped at some point up the ladder and started admiring the rung he was on. This rung is his here-and-now reality; he gets comfortable with admiring it and begins to wish he could remain on that rung forever. He places a greater value on it that on his ultimate goal, the treasure at the top. We would not hesitate to call this person's behavior nothing short of ridiculous.

The treasure at the top symbolizes what awaits for us in our true home, heaven. The ladder with its alluring rungs symbolizes the present world through which we are now passing. For us to become enamored of the things of this life, of the here-and-now, is to act in a profoundly more ridiculous manner than the person of the allegory. As prudent Christians, WE USE THE THINGS OF THIS WORLD (THE "RUNGS") IN A PROPER MANNER ONLY INSOFAR AS THEY LEAD US ON TO HEAVEN AND TO ETERNAL UNION IN LOVE AND TRUTH FACE-TO-FACE WITH THE INFINITE LIVING GOD. Again, from Matthew 6, we read:

[Mat 6:31] ...do not worry and say, 'What are we to eat?' or 'What are we to drink?' or 'What are we to wear?'
[Mat 6:32] All these things the pagans seek. Your heavenly Father knows that you need them all.
[Mat 6:33] But seek first the kingdom (of God) and his righteousness, and all these things will be given you besides.

As we step from one rung to the next one higher, we leave the former rung behind., as St Paul states in First Corinthians:

[1 Cor 13:9] For (now) we know partially...
[1 Cor 13:10] but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away.
[1 Cor 13:11] When I was a child, I used to talk as a child, think as a child, reason as a child; when I became a man, I put aside childish things.
[1 Cor 13:12] At present we see indistinctly, as in a mirror, but then face to face. At present I know partially; then I shall know fully, as I am fully known.

The Holy Spirit encourages us to put aside childish things and grow to true maturity as sons and daughters of God in this life, preparing for our eternal happiness with Him in the next life. We follow the leading of the Holy Spirit to become fully children of God, as we read in Romans 8:

[Rom 8:14] For those who are led by the Spirit of God are children of God.

Following the leading of the Holy Spirit as He reveals Himself in the teaching church, we leave anxiety behind, using the things of this world only as He directs, and look forward with confidence in the promises of Our Lord God and Savior Jesus Christ of a blessed destiny in heaven.

Jesus' warnings in today's Gospel concerning material wealth can be summarized as follows:

To possess material wealth makes salvation difficult; to love material wealth makes salvation impossible.

2. Celibacy

The second part of today's Gospel concerns the vocation to the single state--to celibacy. It is a vocation complementary to the vocation to the married state, and it is helpful to discuss celibacy in the context of that complementariness, and in the context of vocations in general.

To each baptized Catholic, the Holy Spirit is the author of one or more vocations to a particular state of life. These fall into two broad headings: vocations to the married state and vocations to the single state.

In the married state, some are called to the married state with children (by birth or adoption), and others are called to the married state without children, whereby they constitute a special sign of love for the Christian community at large.

In the celibate state, there are vocations to the priesthood in the sacrament of Order, there are vocations to the consecrated religious life by way of the evangelical counsels of poverty, chastity, and obedience, and there are vocations to the single life in the world., including widowhood.

There are several parallels between the vocations to the married state and to the priesthood.

o For each of these vocations, there is an underlying sacrament.

o The sacraments of Matrimony and Order are called the "social sacraments". The sacrament of Order provides for the continuation in the Body of Christ of those who are to transmit the divine life, and the sacrament of Matrimony provides for the continuation in the Body of Christ of those who are to receive the divine life.

o In each of the sacraments of Matrimony and Order, God has provided that sacramental grace be available as a right to those who have received the sacrament.

o To those whom God calls to either of these sacraments, He says to them, "I give to you a power that I have denied to the angels."

--No angel has ever celebrated the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. No angel has ever granted a pentitent absolution.

--Moreover, no angel has ever had progeny; no angel has ever been a parent.

The priest receives a third sacramental character (or "mark"), after those conferred by Baptism and Confirmation, which is indelible throughout eternity.

In contrast, the married state comes to an end in this life, as affirmed by Our Lord in Matthew 22:

[Mat 22:30] At the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage but are like the angels in heaven.

There are those who may be somewhat wistful when they first hear these words of Our Lord. But that gives way when the entire plan of God becomes apparent.

When a man and woman marry, they grow in the love of God through each other. When they are in heaven, they grow in the love of each other through God....and not only love of each other but love of all the saints and angels as well.

The priest and others with a vocation to celibacy begin in this life to grow in love of mankind through God. They are signs of the Kingdom in an ultimate sense: they show forth in this life how each of us is going to grow in love in our heavenly home throughout the course of eternity.in an ultimate sense: they show forth in this life how each of us is going to love in our heavenly home.

Through the grace of the Holy Spirit and the indwelling empowered by Him of the Blessed Trinity, may each of us live out the vocation to which God has called us--in joy through the tribulations of this world, and for the everlasting bliss of the Beatific Vision with the angels and saints in heaven.