The texts from the Roman Catholic Lectionary today connect our faith in eternal relationship with God to the hope of action, today, to bring greater fullness of life to the poor.
Preference for the poor
The reading from the First Letter of Peter describes a living Hope.
* [1:6–9] As the glory of Christ’s resurrection was preceded by his sufferings and death, the new life of faith that it bestows is to be subjected to many trials (1 Pt 1:6) while achieving its goal: the glory of the fullness of salvation (1 Pt 1:9) at the coming of Christ (1 Pt 1:7).1
Psalm 111 is praise for God’s Wonderful Works.
* [Psalm 111] A Temple singer (Ps 111:1) tells how God is revealed in Israel’s history (Ps 111:2–10). The deeds reveal God’s very self, powerful, merciful, faithful. The poem is an acrostic, each verse beginning with a successive letter of the Hebrew alphabet.2
In the Gospel of Mark, Jesus lovingly challenges the Rich Man.
* [10:23–27] In the Old Testament wealth and material goods are considered a sign of God’s favor (Jb 1:10; Ps 128:1–2; Is 3:10). The words of Jesus in Mk 10:23–25 provoke astonishment among the disciples because of their apparent contradiction of the Old Testament concept (Mk 10:24, 26). Since wealth, power, and merit generate false security, Jesus rejects them utterly as a claim to enter the kingdom. Achievement of salvation is beyond human capability and depends solely on the goodness of God who offers it as a gift (Mk 10:27).3
Eileen Wirth shares a shout out for the heroes of today’s church who prioritize the needs of the poor as Jesus demands in today’s gospel from Mark. She thinks about those who volunteer at homeless shelters, food pantries and similar programs. Even if they continue to live comfortable lives in nice homes, as most such people do, they don’t need to worry about camels passing through needles eyes to enter heaven. They bring the Church’s “preferential option for the poor” to life.
But far from being solemn and noble, most such people that I know are fun to be around because they get joy from serving others and having a purpose in life greater than their own pleasure. For years I had a poster quoting Dr. Albert Schweitzer, a Protestant medical missionary, saying that the happy people are those who have sought and found how to serve. I’ve always found that to be true. Take a note from St. Ignatius and discern when you feel good about yourself. I’ll bet it’s when you’ve done something kind for someone or thrown $20 into a Red Kettle instead of $5. Jesus asks us to make such giving, including giving our time and talents, a way of life, not just an occasional gesture.4
Don Schwager quotes “Seek the life that endures,” by Augustine of Hippo, 354-430 A.D.
"The Lord said to a certain young man, 'If you would enter life, keep the commandments' (Matthew 19:17; Mark 10:17; Luke 18:18). He did not say 'If you would have life' but 'If you would enter life,' defining that life as eternal life. Let us first consider then the love of this life. For this life is loved, whatever its quality; and however troubled it is, however wretched, people are afraid to end it. Hence we should see, we should consider, how much eternal life is to be loved, when this miserable life that must at some time be ended is so loved. Consider, brothers, how much that life is to be loved when it is a life you never end. You love this life, where you work so much, run, are busy, pant. In this busy life the obligations can scarcely be counted: sowing, plowing, working new land, sailing, grinding, cooking, weaving. And after all this hard work your life comes to an end. Look at what you suffer in this wretched life that you so love. And do you think that you will always live and never die? Temples, rocks, marbles, all reinforced by iron and lead, still fall. And a person thinks that he will never die? Learn therefore, brothers, to seek eternal life, when you will not endure these things but will reign with God forever." (excerpt from SERMON 84.1.9)5
The Word Among Us Meditation on Mark 10:17-27 asks us, “What might we be lacking in our life?” Perhaps empathy for a family member, or patience with your children, or the courage to spread the good news. What Lenten practice would open us up to receiving the grace to follow him more closely?
The man in the Gospel “went away sad” because he couldn’t let go of his attachments and make an active decision to rely on the goodness of God (Mark 10:22). Don’t let that happen to you this Lent! Let Jesus show you how you can grow closer to him these next six weeks. God is good, so you can trust that he will lead you in the way that is best for you. “Jesus, I want to trust and follow wherever you lead me this Lent.”6
Friar Jude Winkler comments on scholarship concerning the author of the Letters of Peter. Thirty years after Jesus' death, Peter speaks to a generation that had no personal experience of Jesus. The passing of a camel through the eye of a needle may be a Jewish exaggeration technique used by Jesus. Friar Jude reminds us that we are guided in our spiritual life by the Grace of God.
Fr. Richard Rohr, OFM, shares his belief in the eternal nature of the True Self and its ability to connect us to ultimate purpose and meaning.
Only your soul can know the soul of other things. Only a part can recognize the whole from which it came. But first something within you, your True Self, must be awakened. Most souls are initially “unsaved” in the sense that they cannot dare to imagine they could be one with God/Reality/the universe. This is the illusion of what Thomas Merton (1915–1968) called the “false” self and what I have taken to calling the “separate” or small self that believes it is autonomous and separate from God. Thomas Merton said that the True Self should not be thought of as anything different than life itself—but not my little life—the Big Life. [1] Franciscan philosopher John Duns Scotus (c. 1266–1308) said that the human person is not different or separate from Being itself—not the little being that you and I get attached to and take too seriously, but Universal Being or “the One in whom we live, and move, and have our being,” as Paul said to the Athenians (Acts 17:28).7
The Spirit reveals our connection to full life in the Body of Christ that is realized in our practice of preference for the poor.
References
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