12.10.2003 28^th Sunday Ordinary Season

First Reading: Book of Wisdom 7, 7-11

Psalm 89

Second Reading: Hebrews 4, 12-13

Gospel: Mark 10, 17-30

The first reading begins by telling us that discretion and wisdom are gifts that may be obtained through prayer, gifts that are considered more precious than all the gold in the world! What indeed, is gold in the hands of a fool? It is no more than sand or perhaps less: gold in the hands of those who are not obedient to God, is a source of arrogance, of envy, of insolence, of death! Wisdom illuminates all of life, giving it it’s true significance and orienting it in all circumstances towards peace and communion, harmony within oneself, with God and with all men and women! One receives it through prayer: God gives of His treasures with generosity, but He gives them to those who appreciate them, to those who desire them with all their hearts. God gives them, therefore, to those who ask for them with insistence, that insistence typical of those who love!

The man who runs up to Jesus, as the Gospel reading tells us, and kneels down before him, also hungers for wisdom. He wants to know how to inherit eternal life: he realizes that his riches do not fill his heart; he also realizes that his efforts to live honestly by observing the commandments do not give deep peace and that sense of fullness for which the human heart hungers and thirsts. He feels that Jesus is the only one who can answer his question and, hence, he runs up to him, certain that he will receive that word that will open up new possibilities. Jesus first of all, refers him to God. Whoever turns to Jesus must not expect a magical reply: he refers to faith, that faith which is serene and trusting, that is willing to obey and to take seriously the word that comes from he who is sent by the Father!

Jesus checks, therefore, that the man is serious and committed to his search: has he already begun by obeying those commandments that were given to everybody? Certainly. Then, for the thirst of the heart, there is one more step to take: to seriously receive the gift of God, that gift which includes the wisdom and the knowledge of the Father, that Gift that is not a “thing”, nor a “merit”, but a person with whom to establish an exclusive, total relationship of love! God’s gift is Jesus, the man Jesus, the son, the one standing before him. Fullness and peace enter the heart of man when he receives Jesus and places him above all the rest: above riches, above safety, above the affection of one’s loved ones!

The man kneeling before Jesus is not able to take this step and is left sad, sadly attached to his old treasures that do not renew life, that do not make him younger, but rather older day after day.

The disciples who have accepted Jesus and have left everything for his sake, do not understand. They have taken the important step, but they have only done it externally. They have, indeed, left everything in order to stay with Jesus, but in their hearts they have kept the hope of receiving the same things that they have left behind: the riches and treasures of the world are still important for them. They, too, must mature a new awareness, a new knowledge of their Lord, a new love for him, so new that it is able to exclude the love of earthly things, no matter how attractive they are. Their love for Jesus must substitute and be greater than their love for their dear ones, even their parents and their children.

Such a radical decision seems impossible. Certainly, says the Lord. The ability to make such a difficult decision is only a gift of God: “impossible for men, but possible for God!” We need, therefore, to pray and implore to receive true wisdom, the ability to stay with Jesus, gift of the Father! He is that living word that cuts and enters with pain into the being of man; that uncovers his secret thoughts and feelings and judges his desires. Jesus is the Word that wounds in order to heal, to heal the entire person, to fill them with light and joy, to make their hearts able to love with the love of God and to give them in this way that sense of fullness and of life that they have always desired! Jesus is the Word that makes man free of the things that bind him and block him and that renders him able to love more and with greater respect even his parents and his children! Jesus is truly the wisdom we need to live and come to the Father!

Give us, O God, the wisdom of the heart!