One of the topics that my English language teacher in Elementary school taught was Correlative Constructions used in positive or negative comparisons, such as: “as sweet as honey,” “as white as snow,” “as innocent as a dove,” and then, “as wise as Solomon.” The first reading today suggests why we use that positive comparison “as wise as Solomon.” Solomon was a king who was given a choice between wisdom and wealth. In every line of the first reading he expressed why he preferred wisdom to wealth, thrones, health and beauty. For us, the challenge is “how to recognize wisdom when we see her?”
There’s this story that someone told me years ago or I might have read it. I’ve forgotten the details but I think I remember the core message of the story as to be able to retell it. Some of you may have heard it or know the story better. It was about a family visited by three guests; one was wealth, the other was beauty, and the third was love. As the story goes, the house owner was to choose from among the three guests whom to take into her home. Without hesitation, she decided to invite love, and the other two followed love inside. She asked why and was told that love attracted the rest because love always attracts other blessings. Wealth and beauty do not thrive for a long time without love. The bottom line being that we ought to make the right choice.
The rich man in today’s gospel—who represents the world—wasn’t a bad person. He indeed kept the whole law. Many of us would feel disgruntled to learn that keeping the whole law, both of God and country, wouldn’t qualify us for heaven: no criminal record, no traffic offence, no tax violations. You are by the records “a good American”—whatever that means. More so, you tithe to your Church, have kept all Church laws (for them), yet no hope. You wonder, like the apostles, “who then can be saved?” The right question should be: “What is lacking in me?” That was the question asked by the rich young man.
Jesus cast a gaze of divine love on the young man asking him to return that love by surrendering all his earthly attachments, followed by an invitation to place himself in solidarity with the poor (Healy). The rich young man failed the love test because he knew something was missing in his life—“all these I have kept from my youth; what more need I do” (Mk 10:20)—yet, when Jesus directs his gaze toward the answer which his heart longs, he balks. In contrast to the rich young man, Francis of Assisi heard the same call to sell everything and follow Christ and he left home and a comfortable career to follow Christ in the exercise of evangelical poverty.
No need to become afraid that you may be the next person Jesus would ask to abandon everything to follow him. God doesn’t issue the same invitation to all. He calls some to serve as his priests and others in the monastery or nunnery; yet, many are to serve from their homes in the world as soldiers, teachers, doctors, fire-fighters, lawyers, housewives, etc. Nevertheless, total detachment from one’s possessions is demanded of all. If you are passionate about eternal life, you must look beyond the comfort of earthly wealth.
Money is not man’s ultimate goal. Wealth often generates a sense of false security blocking the road to heaven, especially when the wealthy become self-indulgent, arrogant, and inconsiderate to the needs of the poor. This applies both to wealthy individuals and nations. Conferences called to help poor nations are unnecessary, especially when they’re (often) organized to signal virtue, while organizing costs exceed the actual proceeds to the poor. Charity does not admit of delay. We are not owners but stewards of any material goods we have. The call today is to eschew the culture of consumerism and share our goods with guests, the sick, and the poor (CCC, 2404-5).
Fr. Chukwudi Jo Okonkwo