There is an old Chinese proverb which states: “When your mind is in your heart you will be happy” - in other words - ”You lack one thing; go sell what you own, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then, come follow me.”
Jesus is once again on a roll in the Gospel of Mark (10:17-30) that is, CONNECTING REAL LIFE TO THE WORD OF GOD.
One of the reasons most of us are here at mass today (Oct. 15) is that we want to connect our real lives with the life God wants for us. We are lucky that the second reading taken from the book of Hebrews (4:12-13) reminds us of the nature of God’s word: The Word is penetrating, incisive, revealing, discerning and demanding it is the impetus to grow truer, deeper, simpler and holier, and a catalyst of conversion. As committed people of the One God, we desire and need The Word of God to speak to all situations and circumstances of our human experience.
We need the Word of God to be a potent force in our lives.
The Wisdom text (7:7-11) and the Gospel confront us with the issue of money and material possessions. While no one suggests that these are evil in themselves, the proper use of money and material possessions remains a constant struggle as we hear once again Jesus’ image of the camel and the eye of the needle.
Like the rich young man in the Gospel, we, are also challenged with our own priorities, and the discrepancies of our human needs vs. our human wants.
I realize I am speaking mostly to a generation of students that has chosen education as a priority in their lives that, because of that decision you will be burdened with at least 15 years of debt in order to receive that education. Many of you here at UCLA are the first in your families to receive a college education and have to work your way through school taking time off here and there to make more money to pay for tuition and books, room and board. The average student at UCLA spends five years here to receive a four year education.
What Jesus places before us and his disciples and what the Book of Wisdom places before us, are the reflection questions: Do I have my personal priorities right? Am I doing what I am doing for my own ego or for the mission God wants of me?
In other words, God agrees: When your mind is in your heart, you will be happy.
I have shared with some of you privately that I spent a majority of my 20s finding out what God did not want me to do with my life. At age 27, while doing everything RIGHT, while working on a PhD at the University of Oregon and having a fulltime faculty appointment at Arizona State University, making a great salary for the day, did I finally apply these Scripture reflection questions to myself?°NO, I did not have my priorities right for me; and YES I was doing what I was doing for my own ego and those of others (especially parents and teachers) without reflection on what God might have in store for me. I was listening to voices outside of myself. God wanted me to listen to that whisper he places inside us all that says, “Be what I created you to be.”
I guess you could call me the rich young woman.
It socially hurt to change my life and took me two years to emotionally, and financially recoup, but I didn’t DIE or end up in an institution. I simply found my real self and who my real friends and family were. I discovered the meaning of my life, by doing everything WRONG (according to the world). It was at that time that I chose creating a family over creating a career and became pregnant with two of the most important people in the world, my sons David and Joseph.
I have no regrets. I do wonder sometimes about the road not traveled but, I learned something very important and that is that life choices are about trade-offs and that the road not traveled is sometimes not the road we are supposed to be on. I also learned from this difficult time period in my life that ,”With God all things are possible.”
The readings at our mass today are penetrating, incisive, revealing, discerning and demanding. They are supposed to be. This week, let us be challenged with the God questions of meaning and service rather than the secular questions regarding prestige and power. Let us follow the advice of the old Chinese sage and practice this week making our hearts and minds one°and remember, “With God all things are possible”.