Twenty Eighth Sunday of the Year – October 10, 2021
Readings: Wisdom 7:7-11; Hebrews
4:12-13; Mark 10:17-30
African hunters have a clever way
of trapping monkeys. They slice a coconut in two, hollow it out, and in one
half of the shell cut a hole just big enough for a monkey's hand to pass
through. Then they place an orange in the other coconut half before fastening
together the two halves of the coconut shell. Finally, they secure the coconut
to a tree with a rope, retreat into the bush, and wait. Sooner or later, an
unsuspecting monkey swings by, smells the delicious orange, and discovers its
location inside the coconut. The monkey then slips its hand through the small
hole, grasps the orange, and tries to pull it through the hole. Of course, the
orange won't come out; it's too big for the hole. To no avail the persistent
monkey continues to pull and pull, never realizing the danger it is in. While
the monkey struggles with the orange, the hunters approach and capture the
monkey by throwing a net over it. As long as the monkey keeps its fist wrapped
around the orange, the monkey is trapped. The only way the monkey could save
its life is to let go of the orange and flee.
This hunting system works because
it hardly occurs to the monkey that it cannot have both the orange and its
freedom. Even when the monkey sees the hunters coming to capture it, it does
not let go of the orange and run away but makes more frantic effort to take the
orange with it. The system works because the monkey is entrapped by its own
greed.
Can the monkey have the orange and
the freedom together?
The rich young man is like the
monkey insisting on the orange when its very life is in danger. So Jesus points
out to him the only way of escape: “You lack one thing; go, sell what you have,
and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow
me” (Mark 10:21b).
It is pertinent to note why does
the young man find this teaching a hard pill to swallow? We know that this man
has been a religious, observant Jew since his youth. Religious Jews believed
that wealth was a sign of God’s blessing. Rich people were regarded as those
God had blessed and poor people were regarded as those God had cursed. That is
why when Jesus told his disciples how hard it would be for rich people to enter
the kingdom of God, “they were exceedingly astonished, and said to him, ‘Then
who can be saved?’” (v. 26).
Here we see the beginnings of what
we know today as the “prosperity gospel,” the belief that wealth is a sign of
God’s approval, and poverty and hardship a sign of God’s disapproval. The
gospel of Jesus challenges the prosperity gospel for, as we see in today’s
gospel story, poverty and God’s love can go hand in hand. In fact, voluntary
poverty can be a way of responding to God’s love. Prosperity gospel is nothing
but materialism in religious garb. Materialism is the belief that without
wealth life is meaningless. The rich young man was a materialist believer.
Our prayer today is that God may
give us more wisdom than the monkey to flee materialism in all its forms. For
“what profit is there for one to gain the whole world and forfeit one’s life?”
(Mark 8:36)
(You are most welcome to add your thoughts
and reflections in the comment section below)
Happy Sunday
Congratulations Fr Anush
ReplyDeleteThanks for the good reflections🙏