It's about God

Homily for the Twenty-Eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B
Wisdom 7.7-11 Psalm 90 Hebrews 4.12-13 Mark 10.17-30
Note: This weekend, our parish Finance Council Chairperson gave the annual Parish Financial Accountability Report. Because of the addition of this report to each of the weekend Masses, the homily was more brief than usual.

I am convinced that we try to do too much ourselves. Most people’s lives today are the busiest that human beings have ever been. Many of us are consumed with a myriad of different activities and events that fill our days. We have lost the art of rest, we have forgotten the value of slowing down and enjoying life as it comes to us. Instead, we run out to meet it, filling our lives with sports and shopping and festivals and meetings and work and visiting people and music and Facebook and texting and that favorite TV show that we just can’t miss. We do too much. Or, taken from another perspective, we do too much ourselves. We often think that it is our efforts, our commitment, our hard work that will result in happiness, or success, or achievement of some kind – whether for ourselves, our family, or our community. We work ourselves to death in order to provide for our families; we fill our children’s lives with more sports and activities than we can count in order to live through their success; we are always on the lookout for the latest gadget or technology that will show our friends that we are part of the in-crowd. Our lives are defined not only by what we have but by what we do; or what we do. So it was for the rich man who met Jesus on a journey and was so interested in what he could do to inherit eternal life. He kept the commandments, he followed God’s law. But he couldn’t part with his wealth; he couldn’t give up his possessions, those things that defined who he was. For us, it might not be our possessions that keep us from God; but there is always something – our talent, our attachment to friends, our never-ending work ethic, our winning personality. The greatest step that we can take toward eternal life is to acknowledge that nothing we have, nothing we do, nothing we are, will ever get us there. It is impossible for us to save ourselves. Those things that define our earthly lives have no bearing in the life to come. In the end, only one thing matters: God is in control, and for God, all things are possible. The best thing we can do to get closer to God is to seek the wisdom that helps us live detached from our possessions, our goals, our dreams and instead live for God alone. It’s not about me; it’s not about you – it’s about God.