Twenty-eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time

OCTOBER 13, 2024

GOSPEL MEDITATION

This week we hear of the man who inquires of Jesus how to obtain eternal life. He rejects Jesus’ invitation to sell his goods, give to the poor, and follow Jesus. Mark tells us this devastatingly sad line, “At this saying, his countenance fell and he went away sorrowful; for he had great possessions” (Mark 10:22). The man’s heart wasn’t centered on Jesus, but on his possessions. Perhaps Jesus intuited this. Now, we don’t know if Jesus intended to actually make him go through with it, like God’s call to test Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice Isaac. But sadly, in this case the willingness was not there to entrust everything to Jesus. And this made the man deeply sad.

For most of us, the literal dispossessing of our goods is not our call. But as Christians, a consistent renouncing of them is. This week, especially if you’re noticing a persisting sadness, I invite you to hear Jesus calling you to acknowledge that none of your possessions are finally yours. They are God’s and on loan to you. We get so addicted to that stuffy and sad word, “mine.” At Mass, we rehearse this attitude of joyful detachment by giving bread, wine, and money to the Lord, as if to say, “Lord, all I have is yours.” And what we get back is a sadness-defeating joy beyond all description: knowing that He is ours, and we are His.

What possessions are pre-occupying you at the moment? Write them down. Intentionally offer them to the Lord at the next Mass you attend.

– Father John Muir

 

A FAMILY PERSPECTIVE

Having possessions is an illusion. In today’s gospel Jesus told the young man to give up his need to control and put his trust in God. He couldn’t let go! In families our need to control destroys
relationships. We can lead, teach and encourage, but we can’t control anyone but ourselves.

– Bud Ozar

 

EVERYDAY STEWARDSHIP

In our Gospel today we hear the story of a man who ran up to Jesus and asked Him what he must do to reach eternal life. Jesus said, “You are lacking in one thing. Go, sell what you have, and give to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.” It says the man went away sad because he had much.

We might cringe when we hear this story because it is sad – this man was so close to becoming an active disciple of Jesus, but instead turned away. We also might cringe because it could be deeply applicable to our lives. If we look at our own lives, we can most likely think of something that we tightly carry with us. Maybe it is possessions – material goods or money – like Jesus references in our Gospel. Or maybe it is something less material – like status, pride or control. As we go through life, it can be hard not to cling tightly to things of the world.

May we consider what it is that is holding us back from radically loving Jesus. Pray for the grace to overcome, don’t pass  by the opportunities to surrender, and create moments to detach. It might seem difficult, but the outcome will be more than we could have ever imagined – peace on earth and treasure in heaven.

 2024 Catholic Stewardship Consultants

 

PRACTICING CATHOLIC – RECOGNIZE GOD IN YOUR ORDINARY MOMENTS

There are several moments throughout the calendar year when we are tricked into thinking we can reinvent ourselves. One of them is New Year’s Day. The barista at my coffee shop told me that they sell more decaf coffee in January than in the entirety of the remaining year, because everyone is swearing off caffeine. By February, she said, the trend subsides: folks have realized they’re not actually superheroes just because the last digit of the year has increased by one.

The beginning of a new school year is another of those moments. Every pencil is freshly sharpened, and every lesson plan is painstakingly plotted. Our heads are full of what we plan to do this year, how we plan to do it, who we plan to become. But by May, the wind is out of our sails. We’ve learned the concepts, we’ve used up the pencils, yes — but we’ve remembered that underneath it all we’re basically the same people, with the same shortcomings and the same obstacles as we always were. The only difference in September was we had new planners.

The truth is that we cannot reinvent ourselves. We can’t change ourselves at all, not on New Year’s Day or the first day of school or on our 40th birthday or after quitting a bad habit. We are what we are: blind in some ways, deaf in others, crippled in still more, moving through life with uncertainty, stumbling in the dark.

People don’t change. Not without miracles.

But being a Christian means believing in miracles and being ready for them at any moment — in January or in September, in the middle of a hopeless week or at the end of a bad day, when you feel strong and when you don’t, when you want to be better and when you feel too tired to try. No, we can’t change ourselves, but we can be changed. There is one who can change us if we will let him. He is waiting — now, tomorrow, yesterday, next week. The time is always right for a miracle. “He put his finger into the man’s ears … and said to him, ‘Ephphatha!’— that is, ‘Be opened!’