28th Sunday in Ordinary Time (B)

Wis 7:7-11
Ps 90:12-13, 14-15, 16-17
Heb 4:12-13
Mk 10:17-30 or 10:17-27

Hello, I’m Franciscan Father Greg Friedman, with the "Sunday Soundbite" for the Twenty-Eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time.

You've heard the expression, "How hard can that be?" We usually employ it to point out the obvious ease or simplicity of some task. But in today's Gospel, Jesus shocks his disciples by saying-not once, but twice-how hard it is for the rich to enter the Kingdom of God. "How hard can that be?" Impossible, Jesus declares, without God's help.

Our culture looks up to and encourages us to become like those with wealth and power. We at least want to have enough of the world's goods to ensure security for our families, and provide to for the future in an uncertain world. And yet, there's an element of the Kingdom that pushes us to consider the alternative.

Today's Gospel recommends, even urges, divesting ourselves of goods and attachments for the sake of God. To take the risk of letting go, of seeking alternatives to possessing more and more, in a society that promotes "conspicuous consumption"-that is indeed an impossible task without God's help.

I can't begin to spell out what such alternatives might mean in your particular case-I confess to having enough trouble living up to my own religious vow of a simple and unattached life! But I do take heart in Jesus' assurance that God wants to work with us to explore the possibilities! That brings the Kingdom a little closer for me when I hear these Scriptures.

Scripture:

•Beyond health and comeliness I loved her, And I chose to have her rather than the light, because the splendor of her never yields to sleep, (Wisdom 7:10)

•Teach us to count our days aright, that we may gain wisdom of heart. (Psalm 90:15)

•Indeed, the word of God is living and effective, sharper than any two-edged sword, penetrating even between soul and spirit, joints and marrow, and able to discern reflections and thoughts of the heart. (Hebrews 4:12)

•“Then who can be saved?” Jesus looked at them and said, “For human beings it is impossible, but not for God. All things are possible for God.” (Mark 10:26b,27)

Reflection:

•What is beyond health, beauty and unlike daylight never rests?

•Do you count days, make days count, or use a different scale?

•What penetrates to the inmost self ("between soul and spirit") perceiving reflections and thoughts of the heart? (Note: reflections and thoughts are hard to see!) How do you find what is true in your heart?

•What is impossible but possible?

Stumbling under the weight of contradictions in our lives, for a fleeting moment we glimpsed the possibility of building within ourselves a place of simplicity and light. Horrified at our own selfishness, we burst asunder the chains of the senses, at least in our desire, and glimpsed the possibility of true freedom and love. Bored by a middle-class conformist life, we suddenly saw ourselves on the streets of the world—bearers of a message of light and love, love of all sisters and brothers, and ready to offer on the altar of unconditional love, the witness of a life in which the primacy of poverty and love would make communicating and relating an easy matter. This is when Francis enters our lives in some way. It would not be easy to find a Christian—Catholic, Protestant, or Orthodox—who has never identified with the figure of Francis of Assisi, and who has not in some measure desired to imitate him.…I think that Francis of Assisi is in the depths of every human being, for all are touched by grace—just as the call to holiness is in the depths of every human being.