Sunday Reflection

THE TWENTY EIGHTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

A while ago the priests of our diocese were on convocation when one evening they were surprised to see a Superbowl ring. The Tampa Bay Buccaneers had won the Superbowl the previous January and now all the members of the organization, players, administration, etc, had a ring. One of the members of the Buccaneer front office came by with his Superbowl ring. He took it out of its show box and let many of us try it on. Of course, I did. It had 319 diamonds representing the final score of the Superbowl, 31 to 9. It has 8 emerald cut diamonds on each side representing the eight straight wins that ended the year, the longest streak in franchise history. There were 15 carats of white diamond and 14 carats of yellow and white gold. It is valued at $24,500 although people are offering $200,000-300,000 for one. (Even I'm not that much of a Buc fan.) When I put it on, I realized that if it got stuck on my finger, they would sooner chop my finger off than ruin the ring. I was very careful.

Many, many people would do anything to earn a ring like that. Certainly, the athletes put a lot of blood, sweat and tears to be in the shape that let them be among the few who won a championship. But what happens after you have won? What happens after you win the ring? Where do you go from there? Is your life a success?

It's not just the ring, it's the question of achieving anything of great monetary value. Once we have it, then what? Are billionaires satisfied with their bank accounts, or are they always looking for more? Sadly, the latter is the answer. As deserving of their possessions as people who work hard are, if that is all there is in their lives, then how poor they are. I know many of the doctors in our parish will tell you that their greatest possession is the knowledge that they have helped people conquer pain, helped people heal, or even helped them finish their life in peace. They will also tell you that their greatest joy is in leading their own families to draw closer to the Lord. They might own a great deal which they certainly worked hard for, but their possessions do not define them nor do they dominate their lives.

On the other hand, there are many people who do not own a great many possessions. But they let the little they own control their lives.

The young man in the Gospel reading wanted to be a follower of the Lord, but he also wanted his possessions. He was called to be a disciple, perhaps one of the closest followers of the Lord. After all, Jesus looked at him and loved him. He saw the young man's potential. Perhaps that young man would have become one of the great saints of the first days of the Church. But the young man walked away from the Lord. His possessions dominated him. He didn't own them. They owned him.

We need the wisdom of God to protect us from the allure of materialism. Today's first reading comes from the Book of Wisdom, one of the last books completed before the Christian epoch. Listen again to what it says:

I prayed, and prudence was given me;
I pleaded, and the spirit of wisdom came to me.
I preferred her to scepter and throne,
and deemed riches nothing in comparison with her,
nor did I liken any priceless gem to her;
because all gold, in view of her, is a little sand,
and before her, silver is to be accounted mire.
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.
Yet all good things together came to me in her company,
and countless riches at her hands.

The ancient sages who wrote this knew what mattered in the world: Wisdom. What is wisdom? There are many definitions of wisdom, mostly revolving around the use of knowledge, but for the believer, the best definition of wisdom is simply the ability to see as God sees, to choose to do what God would do.

St. Joseph was a wise man. Before he had the dream where the angel told him to take Mary into his home, Joseph had already decided that he was not going to expose Mary to the Jewish law. Mary, his beautiful young betrothed, was pregnant. Joseph knew that if he had let it be known that he was not the father of the child, Mary would be tried for adultery and most likely would be stoned to death. That is what the law said must be done to a woman caught in adultery. Joseph was certain that this could not possibly be what God would want. He saw this matter as God saw it. He would save the life of this young girl. It was only then, after he made this decision, that the angel came to him in the dream and told him that he was should not be afraid to take Mary into his home. More than this, because he was a righteous man, right with God, Joseph would be given the honor of naming the child. This form of adoption meant that all that was Joseph would descend upon the child. The child would be of the line of David because Joseph was of the line of David. All this happened because Joseph chose the wisdom of God.

St. Francis of Assisi was a wise man. He saw the world as God sees it. His joy was not in the accumulation of wealth that the new middle class, the merchant class, had defined as being successful. He cut himself off from the distractions of life and focused on the beauty of God's creation. His stomach may have grumbled at times, but his joy continually increased as he focused on God's wonders. He could sing out "Brother Sun, Sister Moon," and he could preach to the birds. More than this, if you were to go to Assisi and go to the Basilica of St. Francis, as you approach the Basilica you would see written on the lawn the word Pacem, peace. "Make me an instrument of your peace." St. Francis had the wisdom to find where peace could be attained, in the possession of God.

I look at the members of my own family who have passed, my Mom and my Dad, my Godmother and Godfather, and I realized that I have been given the gift of being led by wise people, people who put the love of God before everything. Look also to your families. Who are those people that you know have achieved peace in their lives? Have any of them found peace in their possessions, or have they all found peace in living as good, decent people, people who put God first in their lives and in your lives?

"It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for one w ho is rich to enter the kingdom of God." The Lord was using a hyperbole to get across the point. He may have been referring to putting a rope through the eye of a needle, because the Hebrew word for rope was similar to the Hebrew word for camel, or he may have been referring to leading a camel through the series of mazes that made up a gate in Jerusalem called the eye of the needle. It doesn't matter. His point is that so many who are rich lack wisdom. They look for joy in their possessions instead of in God. The more that some people have, the more that they want. But they lack what they need. St. Teresa of Calcutta referred to this as the poverty of the rich.

We are all called out of poverty to luxuriate in the immeasurable riches of God's grace. We have to keep our priorities in life straight. Yes, it is wonderful to work hard and to earn a Superbowl ring. But if that is the goal of our lives, then where do we go after we have won the ring? Tom Brady has seven rings, but even Tom Brady came to the point of his life when he could no longer win another ring. For him, and for us, our lives will have value not in the rings we have won, but in the love that we have brought to the world.

This love can only come through Jesus Christ. Our union to Jesus Christ, our determination to be the Lord's disciples, will bring a unique reflection of God's love to the world. To the extent that this is how we live our lives, to that extent we are wise.

This material is used with permission of its author, Rev. Msgr. Joseph A. Pellegrino, Diocese of St. Petersburg, FL. Visit his site at http://frjoeshomilies.net/