Readings: Wis 7:7-11; Heb 4:12-13; Mk 10:17-30
In the Gospel reading today, we hear about the rich young man who comes to Jesus to ask what he needs to do to inherit eternal life. This is evidently a good man who states he has followed the Commandments and is concerned with being able to get to Heaven. Jesus also recognized the goodness of this man and desired something far greater for him. He had either inherited or amassed a great deal of wealth on earth, but our Lord tells him how he can amass treasure in Heaven.
The thought of selling his possessions, giving the money to the poor, and following Jesus was too much for him and he went away sad. This poor man was torn. He recognized the holiness and wisdom of our Lord and came to Him to ask about eternal life. On one hand, he wanted to have treasure in Heaven, but on the other hand, he wanted to hold on to his earthly treasure.
I assume the man’s possessions were not in any way evil; in fact, some of them may have been very good. He may have been able to put together a collection of the best religious artwork of the time. The problem was that he was attached to these things and, therefore, unwilling to give them up. If we make a grand assumption and say that his possessions were religious and purchased to give glory and honor to God, then we would need to say that he was more attached to the things of God than to God Himself.
In the first reading we hear about the one who did not seek the things of God, but sought God Himself. This person prayed for prudence and wisdom. We know that in several of the Old Testament books, Wisdom is personified to the point of being presented as a type of divine being. St. Paul goes even further and tells us that Jesus is the Wisdom of God. So, one who is truly wise will seek the highest good, which is God.
We do not know whether the wise man of the first reading was offered kingship, riches, gems, or gold, but he says he preferred wisdom to any of these. He preferred her over his own health or even over light. One can see in this that a person can be lowly, poor, or suffer with health problems, but still be endowed with divine wisdom. This is wonderful because it shows us that God’s wisdom is for everyone and not for a chosen few.
It is interesting when we compare the perspectives of the rich man of the Gospel and the wise man of the first reading. The rich man preferred the things of this world to having God Himself. Since God is all in all, what this translated to is the man preferred having a few things over having everything. The wise man of the first reading, on the other hand, was willing to give up everything in order to obtain the greatest good. What he found instead is that in obtaining the highest and greatest good, he received all of the lesser goods as well. As he said: “all good things together came to me in her company and countless riches at her hands.”
We need to be clear about what this means. It does not necessarily imply that he became materially wealthy; rather, it means that he received that which is of the greatest value. One cannot put a price on things of the spiritual life. The wisdom, the insights, the growth in virtue, the conformity to God, the progress in holiness, the fulfillment of our person are all of far greater value that the most expensive object that can be made.
This is the wisdom of the Saints who chose to give up everything that would hinder their progress toward the Lord. Most of them died poor in the estimation of the world, but they died extremely wealthy in the treasure they had stored up in Heaven. This brings us to the most important question: what is truly most important in my life? In order to answer that, we need to be willing to look into our own heart with brutal honesty.
We can try to fool ourselves, but as we see in the second reading, “everything is naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must render an account.” Pray for wisdom. The Wisdom of God, Jesus Christ, is also the Word of God which is “living and effective . . . penetrating even between soul and spirit, joints and marrow, and able to discern reflections and thought of the heart.” There are many good things in the world; don’t settle for less when you can have all: choose God and you will have all!
Fr. Altier’s column appears regularly in The Wanderer, a national Catholic weekly published in St. Paul, Minn. For information about subscribing to The Wanderer, please visit www.thewandererpress.com.
