Homily for the Twenty-eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time
-
In two different conversations Our Lord has today,+ one with the wealthy young man+ the other with His disciples …… He teaches about two distinct, but related realities:+ the Kingdom of God on earth+ eternal life in heavenIn a counter-intuitive manner, however, He reverses the order, speaking about eternal life in heaven first, and then about the Kingdom of God on earth. This means that God’s Kingdom on earth has to be understood in the context of the eternal life of heaven.So, in each conversation, He seizes the moment as a teaching opportunity, not launching into an extended lecture, but with as much compassion as wisdom, responding simply and directly to questions put forth sincerely.Let’s look more closely at these two conversations, these two teaching moments, in order to gain what we can for our lives today. First: His lesson about eternal life in His conversation with the wealthy young man.Saint Mark doesn’t tell us about the man’s wealth until the end of the conversation, writing, “…his face fell, and he went away sad, for his possessions were many." But consider how the man approaches the Lord:First Mark tells us that “he ran up” to Jesus, suggesting that he sought a close encounter…Then, Saint Mark tells us that the fellow knelt down, demonstrating humility and sincerity.Finally our young man, too, seized the moment as an opportunity to address the Lord with a legitimate question that likely had been on his mind for awhile, hoping for a response that would give his life purpose.The Lord gives an immediate response, but in doing so, He re-directs the question:+ from: “What shall I do?”+ to: “How shall I live?”…defining the approach to eternal life+ first, through obedience to the Commandments+ then, through following Christ in freedom, unencumbered by the trappings of wealth.The poor fellow was shocked by the Lord’s words, expecting, perhaps, an easy formula, or a simple activity with which to accomplish sanctification and not so much for conversion of heart.To seek eternal life is, ultimately, to seek God for Himself. The entire ministry and teaching of Christ are given to direct and enable that search. The young man, obliquely aware of this, seeks out Christ in earnest, even though he’s not ready to make the move that Our Lord proposes.How, then, shall we understand the meaning of eternal life if we are to seek it as our destiny, leading us to embrace the Kingdom here and now? Before we ask, though, we have to know what we’re asking for. When we use the word “eternal,” we’re not speaking of an expanse of time. Indeed, “eternity” speaks of timelessness. But more than that, the adjective “eternal” speaks of an attribute that can be assigned to God alone.More than a unique “quality of life,” it speaks of “being” as God’s very essence. (Remember His word to Moses: “I Am Who Am.”) If, then, God’s essence is “being,” then there can be no time in which God was not being — that is — not in existence.Therefore, for us, now, to look forward to sharing in eternal life, we must first look backwards, in a manner of speaking, to the life, the Being, of the Holy Trinity before time began.There is, within the Being of God, profound and perfect solitude, something like what we seek when we+ go to prayer+ go for a quiet walk+ go on a vacation to “get away from it all.”But in the solitude of God there exists no lack… no need… no loneliness, but the fullness of Being. The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit do not “need” one another, but co-exist in a complete and silent love, such as the human heart seeks, but at the same time cannot imagine.Because of this fullness of Being “God-plus-Creation” is not greater than God alone, for God has no need of us… yet He delights in us, and loves us with the wholeness of His perfect love, so that He saves us from ourselves through the loving, redemptive act of Christ on the Cross, and the perpetual Graces rendered by the Holy Spirit. This means that Creation was done with a view to redemption: God’s plan to draw us to Himself both now and in eternity.Other “creators,” such as artists, composers, or authors, are known by their works, but their works can be greater than they are, for example:+ But for the Pietá or the David, who would Michelangelo be?+ Without his soaring fugues and cantatas, Bach would be just another church organist.+ Shakespeare would have easily faded into history without his brilliant plays, sonnets, and more.But none of this is true of God. God is seen and knowable to a limited degree in His Creation but His Creation doesn’t define Him. It is existence and divine love that define Him, far beyond what the feeble human mind can fathom.This is love in its perfection: a love that has no lack… no need… no loneliness, but which transcends the abyss from the eternal to the temporal…from heaven to earth… loving us into being, sustaining us through our lives, then drawing us home to Him. This is the eternal life for which the human heart and soul long, but which the young man in our story could not quite grasp.This now leads us to the second conversation which Our Lord undertakes: a discussion with His disciples about the challenge of approaching God’s Kingdom while living here on earth.They had overheard the conversation that the Lord had with the young man about seeking eternal life through obedience to the Commandments, as well as abandoning worldly pursuits, and were overcome with angst that led them to ask, “Then who can be saved?”Once again the Lord re-directs the question, but this time to a point of clarification in which salvation is defined as not something we ultimately accomplish, but as an acceptance of God’s saving love, revealed in Jesus Christ. So we see that:+ perfect love is the essence of the Kingdom of Heaven and of eternal life+ redemptive love is the essence of the Kingdom on earth.This redemptive love, in our clearest understanding, is meant to be participatory. We are meant to do more than simply accept redemption, we’re meant to live it. This redemptive love re-defines human love, in that all our other relationships are to be lived in the context of our continuing attempt to live as those redeemed and destined for eternal life.The struggle to love becomes the essence, the work, the life of the Kingdom; the fullness of the Kingdom on earth: living with and in divine love, will be ours in eternal life. So, to begin our movement to the Kingdom on earth, and toward our hope for eternal life, we can assume the postures, first of of the young man:+ approaching Jesus with vigor+ bending the knee in humility+ speaking of our heart’s deepest desireAnd then we can listen to the Lord’s words with sincerity, as did the disciples, allowing Him to re-direct our thoughts, hopes and desires in order to address the soul’s deepest longing which is to seek and live eternal life, beginning in the present moment. The Lord offers us nothing less than His Kingdom; He wants to be certain, however, that we really want it… and then it is ours.