Wealth, Holiness, Wisdom - Come Follow Me

Do we understand real poverty? Have we experienced real hunger? Real hunger when one has nothing to eat and absolutely no idea when one can put food into one’s mouth? On the other hand, what is richness? We often don’t think we are rich but being rich is having more than we need- in terms of materials things, do we not have more than we need? In the gospel, we see the sincere rich young man who wants to inherit eternal life. He has been following the commandments of God in his life but when Jesus challenged him further, there was one thing that ultimately became his stumbling block- his material wealth. From today’s reading, let’s reflect on 3 points: Wealth, holiness and wisdom 1. What is wealth? It is having more than we need. Human beings have a natural tendency to want more. Jesus was never against us having wealth. In fact, in the Jewish tradition, being wealthy was being blessed by God. The problem arises when what we have is prevents us from reaching true happiness. In the context of faith, we can have true happiness when we are in deep relationship with God, and we know and live the will of God. Therefore, like the man in the gospel, when possessions prevent us from fully coming to God, that is when our so-called wealth becomes our poverty. 2. What is holiness? The rich young man believed he was holy. He thought that he could inherit eternal life as he has followed all the commandments of God. However, he stumbled when he was asked to sell everything and to give the money to the poor. Often in our faith life we focus on what we do (eg how am I doing? Am I following the commandments?) rather than focusing on others around us. (How is my relationship with others? Did I fail to love?) Today Jesus was challenging the young man to share what he has with others. It is in sharing with others what we treasure (not what we don’t want) that we become in solidarity with others. When we understand this, that is true holiness. 3. What is wisdom? Like the first reading, we have a natural desire for wisdom. Wisdom with respect to wealth- not letting our material possessions prevent us from coming to God and being able to let them go when we need to. Wisdom with respect to holiness- our holiness is not about guarding ourselves from sinning but caring for other people. Wisdom is the ability to put our thoughts, our understanding into action and making it part of our lives. We can ask ourselves: Is my wealth helping me to reach eternal life? Or is it becoming my poverty? Are we a slave to our wealth? Fr Terence challenges us to look for 3 things that we treasure and to share it with someone. It is difficult, but hopefully we can hear Jesus telling us: “You will have treasures in heaven, come follow me.” -Sunday Homily by Fr. Terence Wee, C.Ss.R. (13 October 2024)