Homily for the Week of October 11, 2009

Twenty-eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time, 2009
First Reading: Wisdom 7:7-11
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 90:12-13, 14-15, 16-17
Second Reading: Hebrews 4:12-13
Gospel: Mark 10:17-30 [17-27]

Within the past few days we have heard a lot about the Nobel Peace Prize which has been awarded to our President. There is another person who received that same prize in 1979 when she was 70 years old. It was the saintly nun Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta. Perhaps no person of the last century has been more revered in life than Mother Teresa. She was a frail nun who became a one-woman world power for peace and goodness. This nun, who died at 87 years of age, was buried in a simple grave in a quiet corner of the Missionaries of Charity cemetery in Calcutta, India. From the day that Mother Teresa rode a train in India she heard Jesus speak to her: COME BE MY LIGHT. From that day on she dedicated her whole life to bring the love of God to the poorest of the poor, sickest of the sick. She preached that God's love is in each and every one of us.

The overwhelming poverty and social classes of Asia in 1930 never turned Mother Teresa into a social revolutionary. She ministered to the world as she found it, insisting there was dignity there. She said: The poor give us much more than we give them. They're such strong people, living day to day with no food. And they never curse, never complain. We don't have to give them pity or sympathy. We have so much to learn from them. At her wake in Calcutta, Hindus, Muslims, Buddhists and Christians lined the streets in temperatures near 95 degrees to say goodbye. During her wake, street sweepers clutching little flowers lined up to pay their respects. A beggar with legs crippled by polio used his arms to drag himself to gaze at Mother Teresa's body wrapped in the white, blue-trimmed sari she adopted as her order's habit. They all considered her a saint. Mother Teresa, like the young man, in today’s Gospel, had heard the message of Jesus.

A young man comes to Jesus and asked Jesus what he must do to get to heaven. Jesus tells him he must follow the commandments. He tells Jesus he has done this all his life. This young man was in fact a good and holy person. Jesus loved him because he had followed all the commandments from his youth. But what more can he do beyond keeping the commandments. Jesus pushes him a step further. GO SELL WHAT YOU HAVE AND GIVE IT TO THE POOR. AFTER THAT, COME AND FOLLOW ME. The young man could not look Jesus in the eye. The young man looked down to the ground and went away sad. He had too many possessions.
Such advice must have been frightening for this young person because he had a lot of possessions. He and his family may have had his whole life planned out for him. But Jesus revealed the truth. It was not the right path. But Jesus did not go running after him, begging him to come back. Neither did Jesus change or soften his answer to help him out. Jesus offered. But he must accept or reject the offer. It is up to him, not to Jesus. Loneliness and the feeling of being unwanted is the most terrible poverty

The rich young man was interested in Jesus, but not enough to change his life around. He could not let go of his material possessions. He was controlled by his possessions. He had climbed to the top. He had kept the commandments, but God did not appear to be the first possession of his life. His attachments to his possessions had made him spiritually poor.

Jesus looks at each of us today with love. He promises life after death if we help the poor and do not let our possessions come between us and God. Next weekend is World Mission Sunday. There are still many young men and women who want to go to help the poor. Some may give 5 or 10 years of their life, or, like Mother Teresa, give their whole life. They are called missionaries. f you read the newspapers or listen to cable news you know that these are difficult times for missionaries. Very many bishops, priests, nuns and lay leaders have been assassinated in the past 12 months simply because they are followers of Jesus. The total number is astonishing, because we usually hear in our news only those who are Americans.
It is clear that Jesus is not condemning material things or personal possessions. But he is condemning a personal value system that makes things more valuable than persons. Because the young man valued his possessions and wealth more than Jesus, he could not accept the invitation of Jesus. Mother Teresa could have rejected the invitation to follow Jesus as a nun. As Christians we are invited to give of our Time, of our Talents and of our Treasures to the service of our faith. Jesus promises to those who do a hundred times more in this present age than you have given up, and also eternal life in the age to come. If you can't feed a hundred people, then feed just one.

Each of us must find our own Calcutta. We must do small things with great love. It’s not how much we do, but how much love we put in the doing; and it is not how much we give, but how much love we put in the giving. To God, nothing is small. If we give to God the moment we have, it becomes infinite. Let us resolve today to give, not the leftovers, but of our needs.