topleft05.jpg (18208 bytes)HOMILY
 Twenty-Eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time (B)
12 October 03


 

Several years ago, Dr. Robert Bellah and a group of colleagues wrote what became a rather popular book they entitled Habits of the Heart.  The authors chide Americans for idolizing those highly independent individuals whose mythology tells the story about how, trusting only in themselves, these people stood on their own two feet and courageously confronted and overcame any and all adversity standing in their way.

The authors suggest that the cowboy of the Old West best epitomizes these qualities, especially as the cowpuncher dashes off astride his horse into the sunset with a hearty “Hi ho, Silver” and a puff of dust trailing in his wake.  Weeks and maybe even months pass before this rugged individualist converses with another human being in some dusty saloon located somewhere out in the middle of nowhere.  And, when the cowboy does converse with another human being, he speaks in short, curt sentences, uttering only what needs to be said.  This guy is capable of doing practically anything.

But, lest we forget, everything this cowboy doeseven all of the good he is able to accomplishis achieved by a solitary individual.

We are all pretty familiar with this caricature of the cowboy of the Old West.  We also know that it reflects fantasy more than it reflects reality.  Nevertheless, most of us do spend a lot of time fantasizing about being independent.  Kids fantasize about growing up and being on their own.  Teenagers and young adults fantasize about how wonderful it will be not to have to follow their parents’ rules.  Parents fantasize about the day when they won’t have to deal with the challenges and difficulties associated with raising kids.  At work, many of us fantasize about how wonderful everything would be if we had a different boss, a better job, or were paid the salary we know we really deserve.

Our fantasies beckon to mind detailed, rich, and vivid portraits of what being independent would be like, of having the freedom to do what we want to do and when we want to do it, as well as of how much better everything would be…if only we were the masters of our destiny.  It all seems so good...much better than the daily grind we have to face.

Dr. Bellah and his colleagues remind us that we are far more interdependent than our stereotypic hero and all those fantasies based on his exploits suggest.  Despite our protestations to the contrary, we really want and need other people to be part of our lives.  Those habits of heart serve to remind us that we really desire to be interdependent not independent.

For example, while kids oftentimes think about growing up and being on their own, they very much fear losing the security and comfort their moms and dads provide and which kids oftentimes take for granted until they’re on their own.  While teenagers and young adults anxiously anticipate the day of liberation from what they perceive to be parental interference, the first people teenagers and young adults normally turn to when their hopes and dreams come crashing down are their parents.  Then, how many parents, fresh from an argument with a teenager over issues of personal responsibility and obedience, have relished the thought of leading their own lives freed from their parental responsibilities?  Yet, when that supposedly happy day finally arrives, how sad these parents oftentimes are, shedding a tear (or, more accurately, choking back a Nile River full of tears) as they survey their “empty nest.”  And, while so many of us may hope for so many things to change at work, those hopes quickly transform into fears when gossip of potential layoffs and pink slips filters through the corporate grapevine faster than email passes through the Internet.

As Americans, we do place a high premium upon being independent.  We enjoy doing everything for ourselves and accomplishing many things for ourselves.  And that attitude may be helpful as we contemplate all of those dreams offering us the promise of a blissful future.  But, the simple fact Dr. Bellah and his colleagues assert is that our hearts really desire interdependence.  We don’t really enjoy being that solitary, independent cowboy.  Just stop and think about it: wouldn’t we rather be The Lone Ranger?  After all, he did have Tanto and Trigger to depend on, Kimosabe!

But, as today’s readings remind us, Dr. Bellah and his colleagues are tragically mistaken.  From a scriptural perspective, the real issue confronting us is neither our culture’s value of independence nor the habits of our hearts which value interdependence.  No, scripture teaches that the real issue is dependence and, in particular, whether we discover our true and abiding happiness by becoming totally and completely dependent upon God.

Jesus teaches about our absolute dependence upon God by relating the story about the rich man.

Having everything he needed and leading what by all accounts was a good and virtuous life, the young rich man asked Jesus what he must do if he is to inherit eternal life.

Taken at face value, that’s not a bad question.  We’d all probably like to know exactly what we need to do so that we can merit eternal life, especially if we could know precisely what constitutes the minimal requirements for earning a ticket of admission.  Armed with this knowledge, we could then keep a checklist so that we’d be sure to pass through the pearly gates unscathed at, at least, not having to take our shoes and belts or underwire brassieres off and go through the truth detector first.

The problem, of course, is assumption implied in the rich young man’s question, namely, that human beings merit eternal life by doing various things.  And, by his own testimonyand perhaps more than any one of us can testify about ourselvesthe young rich man has done an awful lot of good since his youth.  As the rich young man told Jesus with regard to following the fourth through seventh commandments, “Teacher, all of these I have observed from my youth.”  Evidently, the young rich man wasn’t being boastful or arrogant.  No, it appears that he was being quite candid and sincere.

Think about it: how many of us could make that statement honestly and sincerely were we standing before the Lord?

But, notice that Jesus hadn’t asked the rich man about the first three commandments: “You shall not put strange gods before me.”  “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain.”  “Remember to keep holy the Sabbath.”  While the seven commandments Jesus did ask about concern love of neighbor, the first three commandmentsthe ones Jesus did not ask aboutconcern love of God and, in particular, not just giving God first place in our lives but, more importantly, recognizing our absolute dependence upon God and living according to that standard.

“You are lacking in one thing,” Jesus said to the young rich man.  “Go, sell what you have, and give to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven….”

“At that statement his face fell, and he went away sad, for he had many possessions,” Jesus told his disciples.  The young rich man just didn’t have the capacity to do it.  He couldn’t conceive how he could possibly be happy were he to be absolutely dependent upon God instead of continuing to enjoy all of his possessions and to do things demonstrating his love for his neighbor.  Indeed, he had the second half of the equation correct; but, he totally neglected the first half of the equation which is foundational to the second half.  Love of Godand complete dependence upon Himis what must provide the foundation for and motivate love of neighbor.  Otherwise the rich young man was just a nice personmuch like a good social workerbut he was not a person of faithlike the loving and saintly Mother Theresa of Calcutta.

“How hard it is for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!” Jesus said.  Dumbfounded, his disciples stood there.  God’s word had cut straight through to the heart of the matter.

What Jesus is teaching his disciples through the story of the rich young man is that dependence upon God is not measured by how well his disciples avoid doing bad things and demonstrate love of neighbor.  Neither is dependence upon God measured in terms of what disciples might be able to claim they do for God.  All of that is secondary.  What is primary, what provides the foundation for all of those other good things, is their absolute dependence upon God.  That is measured in the way disciples don’t allow their possessions to possess them but, instead, allow God to possess them.  Stated simply, then, love of God requires leaving everything behind and trusting only in Divine Providence.

Now, that’s a pretty demanding requirement and an awfully high price to pay for admission to eternal life, as the young rich man knew.

How often have we watched family members being interviewed on television who have lost their homes to natural disasters or fires?  The scene never seems to change.  Standing in front of the devastation, there these family members are and, as they wipe the tears from their eyes, they blubber something along these lines, “I’ve lost everything! I don’t think I’ll ever recover from this.”  While our hearts certainly go out to these people and we empathize with their plight and their pain, isn’t it an absurd proposition that people cannot recover from the loss of their possessions?

If we just think about it, it is when we lose our most prized possessions that our absolute dependence upon God hits us like a ton of bricks right between the eyes.  The loss of one’s home and possessions to a natural disaster or fire compels people to evaluate what really matters in life.  Contemplating the choices one has made in life from a hospital bed rather than from a favorite chair in the den forces people to make radical changes in the way they live.  The illusory happiness people oftentimes take for granted is drastically changed when they are forced to ponder a beloved spouse, child, or a good friend lying dead in a casket.  Everything that once seemed so vitally important is changed when these highly-prized possessions suddenly are taken from us and disappear.  And, as painful as all of that really is, it is but a mere prelude to our own death, when we will take nothing along with us on the short journey to the graveyard.  Don’t forget the adage: “They don’t attach U-Hauls to hearses.”

That’s why scripture oftentimes refers to God’s word as a “sharp-edged sword.”  It plunges into the depths of the heart by cutting through all of the illusions and delusionslike those of independence and interdependencethat people hold so dear and base so much of their daily lives upon.  God’s word demands a response, just as Jesus challenged the young rich man to respond by selling everything that he had and giving the proceeds to the poor.

The young rich man knew this is what he needed to do and he also knew that he could not do it by himself.  Leaving everything behind required that the young rich man trust only in Divine Providence.  But, having trust in himself rather than in God, the young rich man lacked the wisdom to see that “only with God all things are possible.”

A lot of people tell jokes about “Judgment Day,” that moment when each of us will supposedly render an account before God for the choices we’ve made during our lives.  In light of today’s story of the young rich man, I’m not so sure that God will be rendering any judgment upon us when the day of judgment arrives.  No, like the young rich man, I believe that we will have already judged ourselves by the choices we’ve made.  Perhaps, like the rich young man, most of us will have demonstrated great love of neighbor by fulfilling the last seven commandments.  But the question Jesus puts before us concerns whether we have discovered true happiness through our complete and total dependence upon God.  Was all of the good we accomplished built upon the foundation of love of God or was it something that many people who don’t profess any faith do (or could have done) equally as well?  On Judgment Day, will our faces fall and will we go away sad because we had so many possessions that distracted us from love of God?

Jesus is challenging his disciples to allow the sharp-edged sword of God’s word to pierce deep into their hearts.  He wants themand he wants us alsoto keep one goal in mind each and every day, namely, to discover our true happiness by choosing to be absolutely and utterly dependent upon God.  Only in loving Godin fulfilling the first three commandmentswill we be capable of putting first things first and of overcoming what David Ramsey calls the spiritual disease of “stuffitis.”

This is how, as today’s psalm stated, we can “number our days aright.”

 

 

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