Sunday's Gospel

As he was setting out on a journey, a man ran up and knelt before him, and asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone. You know the commandments: ‘You shall not murder; You shall not commit adultery; You shall not steal; You shall not bear false witness; You shall not defraud; Honor your father and mother.’” He said to him, “Teacher, I have kept all these since my youth.” Jesus, looking at him, loved him and said, “You lack one thing; go, sell what you own, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.” When he heard this, he was shocked and went away grieving, for he had many possessions. Then Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, “How hard it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!” And the disciples were perplexed at these words. But Jesus said to them again, “Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.” They were greatly astounded and said to one another, “Then who can be saved?” Jesus looked at them and said, “For mortals it is impossible, but not for God; for God all things are possible.” Peter began to say to him, “Look, we have left everything and followed you.” Jesus said, “Truly I tell you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields, for my sake and for the sake of the good news, who will not receive a hundredfold now in this age—houses, brothers and sisters, mothers and children, and fields with persecutions—and in the age to come eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and the last will be first.” Mark 10:17-31

                        So teach us to number our days
                         that we may apply our hearts
                           to wisdom.   -Psalm 90:12

We don’t know his name. We know blind Bartimaeus, Mary and Martha of Bethany, Joseph of Arimethea, Mary Magdalene, Andrew, Peter, James, John, and even Judas. We know Susanna, Joanna, Mary and Joseph, Zacchaeus, Nicodemus. He might have become the Beloved Beloved Disciple. We might have known his name. He would have had a saints' day. Parents would have named their children for him, schools, hospitals, churches would have borne his patronage.

Jesus looked at him and loved him. “You lack one thing,” Jesus said. “Sell what you have, give the money to the poor, and come follow me.” The rich young ruler turned and walked away, shocked and grieving, “because he had many possessions.”

Jesus loves him. But the young man walks away. The heartbreaking image of the rich young ruler who Jesus loved, turning away in grief, is too much a mirror of daily life. Jesus loves me, but I turn away because of my life of glittering but ephemeral distractions. It doesn't even have to be money related, although money is often connected to it.

Is this story about poverty? Upholding voluntary poverty in times of financial distress seems a little callous and ignorant, as if poverty were some nostalgic romantic ideal. On the other hand, our culture of greed for possessions and power drives disparities of wealth and poverty as well as catasrophic climate change. Where is our forsight? Hindsight? Where is the balance? Where is love?

Beginning this week’s retreat, John Climacus guides his readers through the seasons of life and self examination (Meditation One). Francis' example reflects a poverty of spirit, rather than a mere embrace of poverty for poverty's sake (Meditation Two). Dorothy Day turns everything around with her Gospel values (Meditation Three).

Have a “profitable” meditation.
- Suzanne

Nor was he a mere literalist in the matter of poverty, as some of his friars believed. Being poor was not a question of being without possessions merely for the sake of being without possessions. Rather, the condition was to be freely chosen as a sign of one’s essential poverty of spirit – total reliance on God in every aspect of life. And for Francis, dependence on God was impossible unless one regarded oneself as a mere steward, and not an owner, of one’s own being. For Francis, this was wonderfully liberating, not a deprivation: he was free, and he wished others to share his joy at the freedom from the obsession with money and things, with what is visible, tangible, profitable.

-Donald Spoto
Reluctant Saint: The Life of Francis of Assisi p.178-9

Miscellany

So keep fightin' for freedom and justice, beloveds, but don't you forget to have fun doin' it. Lord, let your laughter ring forth. Be outrageous, ridicule the fraidy-cats, rejoice in all the oddities that freedom can produce. And when you get through kickin' ass and celebratin' the sheer joy of a good fight, be sure to tell those who come after how much fun it was.

Molly Ivins    1944-2007


 

I don't know about you,
but I practice a disorganized religion.
I belong to an unholy disorder.

Kurt Vonnegut 1922 - 2007

Poverty is no romance. Poverty makes you sick in body and spirit and psyche, and poverty eventually kills your soul. Even in my own wealthy country, widespread unhealthy diets limit brain, bone, and neurological development, putting children at risk. Environmental toxins disproportionately affect the poor. Sheer soul sucking despair creates a perpetual state of crises and stress. The exceptions of those escaping poverty only prove the rule.

I've seen the gap between rich and poor widen exponentially in my own lifetime. Public schools in better neighborhoods are pre-eminently better than schools in poorer neighborhoods. Without a good education, a person in this age of information and technology is severely handicapped. In some states, without a driver's license or photo ID, you can't even vote, and many local governments, to try to advance their own priviliged agendas, are cynically and brazenly making voting by the poor harder. (I remember a news story about a woman trying to obtain an ID and being blocked repeatedly, saying to a reporter, “Who do they think I am, Osama bin Laden's wife?”)

A few people I know choose material poverty, living on the prophetic boundaries as witnesses. Witnesses to the degradation of poverty. Witnesses to the shallowness of a society that refuses to look at the long term detriment of poverty to democracy. Witnesses to the soul crushing consequences to the rich who choose to ignore the needs of the poor. Some of these people are in religious communities and some are not.

A sign of hope - many young people I know, who recognize the profound change in values we all need to adopt to adjust to climate change, choose to live radically in respect and reverence for nature. They and others make sacrifices now as a token against the "untold suffering"* to come, indeed is already here through climate catastrophe. To serve, rather than expliot.

Jesus, in the tradition of the prophets, proclaims good news to the poor and not so good news to the rich. But many who are first will be last, and the last will be first. And, It is easier for a camel to go through a needle than a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven.

Gandhi was once criticized for helping people in the caste diresively called "Untouchables." “You should not help them. This is their karma,” said the critic.

“You do not understand karma," replied Gandhi. “The 'Untouchables' are there for you. How you respond to them determines YOUR karma.”

In today's heartbreaking story, the rich young ruler missed his opportunity. He missed his opportunity to be especially loved by Jesus, the man. He missed the opportunity to participate in the mystery of the Word Made Flesh. All he had to do was give up those things that chained him to his place in life, and, as it turns out, in history.

He must have been miserable his whole life in his beautiful clothes, with his power, his wealth. He knew something was missing. Something connecting him with the Eternal, with compassion, with the mystery of new life that the cross would bring to birth. A love deeper, higher, broader, more dense and glittering than anything he could possibly have imagined or possessed.

Oh, my soul.

*IPCC report on climate change

Without a name, the rich young man becomes everyone. You. Me.

The encounter with Jesus begins the story - being loved, being known, and then walking sadly away. Jesus lets him go. Perhaps Jesus loved and knew him well enough to know this man's journey would perfect itself in the absence of Jesus, ever trying to make up for his loss with a life of holiness. Sometimes a loss, a mistake, a bad decision, sometimes even tragedy, shatters you so much that grace can seep through the brokenness. Sometimes for you and for me, the brokenness becomes the holiness, perfected in the empty space between imperfection and desire.
-sg