28th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Oct.

14, 2012 (Wisdom 7:7-11; Hebrews 4:12-13; Mark 10:17-30) The Wisdom reading is styled as a prayer of Solomon, as though Solomon uttered the prayer, even though the book was written as late as 50 BC. The prayer reflects Solomons prayer and image as presented in 1 Kings 3. He prayed for wisdom and, in his case, riches and wealth came along as an additional benefit. This image of Solomon as the ideal wise leader lived long after him, up to and including the New Testament period. That a king in Solomons day or any other would prefer wisdom to scepter and throne, is hard to fathom. Yet, wisdom was regarded once in such a positive light that it puts our own generation to shame. Wisdom would be concerned today not with how things work but whether they should work at all. It seems like a new gadget is invented every minute of every day. How many of those gadgets are necessary or even helpful is debatable. On the other hand, I still remember how hard it was to convince my late parents that a touch tone phone would be ever so much easier to use than their rotary model (the kind you had to actually dial like in old movies, for those too young to remember what they were). Sometimes clinging to the past is not always a sign of wisdom, just of stubbornness. The Gospel involves a trick question: What must I do to inherit eternal life? The simple answer is that there is nothing anyone can do to gain an inheritance. There are plenty of things one could do to become disinherited, but nothing will guarantee an inheritance. Jesus reviews the commandments for the man. Note all of them involve the neighbor in some way. None involves our relationship with God. When the man says he has kept them all,

Jesus says there is one more thing. Go, sell what you have, and give to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me. It is only then that we learn he had many possessions, although we might well have guessed it. The one thing that would give him treasure in heaven, he was unable to do. He had grown attached to his stuff, like so many do, and when that happens all bets are off on the eternity question, at least as far as our own efforts are concerned. Jesus then says: 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. There is no mincing of words here. It stuns his disciples, who thought surely the rich would enter the kingdom, if any would! They had been raised to believe that the wealthy were in some way especially blessed by God. Jesus teaches quite differently. Who can be saved, they ask, thinking that if the wealthy cannot enter the kingdom then what hope would there be for others. Then Jesus says For human beings it is impossible, but. All things are possible for God. Note that Jesus was teaching about salvation, which is Gods work, not ours. The debate over Ohios state motto (With God all things are possible) some years ago never seemed concerned with the context of the saying, as here in Marks Gospel. Since the context had to do with whether we could work out our own salvation (we cant) in the teaching of Jesus (With God all things are possible), those who argued that it was Christian proselytizing were correct; but since no one listens to rational thought these days I suppose the point is not worth arguing. Fr. Lawrence Hummer