“Wisdom: Accepting the Invitation and the Challenge!”
Twenty-Eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time – B
“Pure wisdom always directs itself towards God:
The purest wisdom is knowledge of God.”
- Lew Wallace, Ben Hur
The Book of Wisdom elevates this gift “wisdom” as the greatest of all gifts. It presents “wisdom” as being a gift greater than power, wealth, or fine possessions. It is something to sacrifice even our health and appearance for. What is this great gift?
Wisdom, as described in the Scriptures, is a philosophy. It is how we choose to look at the world. It is the ability to see the world as it really is. It is also the knowledge of what can be. Wisdom sees what is truly important, reflects on it and is the willingness to change behavior based on what is important.
Our gospel this weekend concerns itself with wealth and the kingdom of God. There are three emphases to this gospel. All three emphases are very important if we are to understand the meaning of the Kingdom of God in our midst, and our gaining eternal life.
First, we have an Invitation and Challenge. “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” Keep the Commandments, Jesus says. Then Jesus issues the invitation and challenge. To be a disciple means to go beyond keeping the Law; it means to divest oneself of everything – empty oneself – and “come, follow” Jesus.
How many times have we told ourselves the very same thing? “I need to simplify my life and get rid of all this stuff that get’s in the way of my relationship with God or others? We know what we need to do; we have the wisdom and the knowledge, but it becomes difficult to let go and be the disciple God calls us to be.
Second, we have a reversal of meaning of God’s blessings. In Jewish society, wealth was a sign of God’s blessing. Here Jesus is qualifying this thinking. It is not possessions, which assure one of entrance into the kingdom, but dispossession. It is the self-emptying of the possessions we hoard up in our lives, getting rid of the baggage so to speak, so that we have clear minds and hearts to see God’s ways and not be clouded by our own. The disciples were amazed to hear Jesus say this!
Third, we are offered the rewards of discipleship. Jesus assures his disciples (us) of a hundredfold abundance both “in this present age” and “in the age to come.” Sure, it may cost us to be a disciple of Jesus, but the rewards of discipleship far exceed the sacrifices. When we truly commit ourselves to living our faith and being disciples; in every aspect of our lives, then we see the benefits and the rewards – not just the sacrifices.
So, there we have it. To inherit eternal life, we must dispossess ourselves of anything that gets in the way of responding to the invitation, look to God rather than to ourselves and our possessions for salvation, and if we do so we receive far more than we relinquish in this life, as well as the next. Now, we always enjoy an invitation to be part of something. But what will we do with Jesus’s challenge? That is where the rubber hits the road!
God bless us, and all who live in simplicity of heart!