Twenty-eight year B

Prosper the work of our hands for us!

Prosper the work of our hands.

Remember trickle down economics? That’s where if the rich got richer, their capital and investment would trickle down to us, the little folk.

Well, times have changed. It’s now trickle up economics. The rich get richer…and richer and richer. The magazine Forbes, puts out a listing of the richest persons in America. Who do you think made that list? A millionaire – too poor. A person with fifty million? Nope. A person who has amassed a hundred million dollars? Guess again. You have to have at least one thousand million dollars to make that list. You have to be a billionaire. Now will anyone who made that list, please stand up.

If anyone has hit the Mega Millions Lottery, just remain seated. You’re just too poor to make that list.

The middle class is getting poorer and poorer. And the really poor, forget about it. Anyone working for minimum wage is at the poverty level.

So here we are. Trying to do the right thing. Worried about work – if you are going to have a job or not. Worried about your pension- if you still will have one. Worried about Medicare and Medicaid and Social Security. You worried that if you can afford utilities and medications, can you afford to put food on the table? And of you are an immigrant without the right papers, forget about it.

Would that the prayer for wisdom and prudence found in the Book of Wisdom which we just heard, be part of the Oath of Office of all our elected officials. “I prayed, and prudence was given to me; I pleaded, and the spirit of wisdom came to me. I preferred her to septer and throne…..” (Wisdom, 7:7-11)

There was a theory that if you got rich, it was a blessing from God. The disciples of Jesus subscribed to that theory. That’s what they were worried about in our Gospel story for today. The writer of the Book of Wisdom wrote among the richest people of the then known world – the traders at the seaport of Alexandria in Greece. The writer saw what riches really meant in the greater picture of things and begged God for the gift of wisdom instead.

In our Gospel story, the man with all those possessions got a rude awakening form Jesus. The man did everything he could think of to get himself into heaven. He did everything right. But he got it all wrong. Heaven for him was another possession that he could acquire with good works. Jesus loved him for it but Jesus realized that his attitude needed some adjustment. The man needed the childlike quality of being open to a righteous relationship with God – the childlike openness of heart to receive a gift that has no cost, a gift that is beyond measure, a gift that is not a possession to get, but a gift to receive. The young man didn’t know what it really means to be wealthy in the sight of God. Riches are neither here nor there in the sight of God except if riches stand in the way of a true relationship with God.

So what does that mean for us? Jesus calls us children. We have no possessions other than what is given to us. We have to have money to live and keep ourselves and our families together (and to contribute to our parish.) But please be like the child who is over-awed by a gift that the world cannot give – the grace of God which gives us life not only for this world but more importantly for the world to come. Be right with God and God will gift you the priceless gift of life everlasting with Him. Be childlike with what you have and you will find yourself on God’s Forbe’s list of the wealthiest people in this world and in the world to come.

Seamus Tuohy, O.P. says:

We should come to understand that eternal life is a gift that requires empty hands, empty so that they may know how to receive. Hands that are already full are unable to accept or receive such a gift. Hands that are free and empty are capable of opening up to the grace that God so generously offers us. (Scripture in Church, No.180, Vol.45, p.13)

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2009-10-08