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“Jesus said to his disciples, ‘How hard it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.’” (Mark 10:23, 25)
“SOUL-SURFING” – October 11, 2009
Twenty-eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time
Mark 10:17-30
Fr. Robert deLeon, CSC
While sitting impatiently in my doctor’s waiting room last month, I leafed through a worn copy of the April 2009 Reader’s Digest. Just as I was being called into the examination room, I came across a single-page article entitled “13 Things Your Pizza Delivery Guy Won't Tell You”. I confess that, there being no time to read the article at the moment, I ripped the page from the magazine and stuffed it into my pocket for later digestion. I’m glad I did because the experience of that pizza delivery guy speaks directly to the gospel passage we hear today! First the pizza, then the gospel.
Among the 13 tips the delivery guy offers, numbers 9, 10 and 11 speak directly to the topic of money. We homebound consumers of delivered pizza are advised of the following: “(9) Tips should be 10 to 15 percent of your order. If you order a lot of pizza—say, hundreds of dollars' worth, for a party or something—but give me a $1 tip, well, I'm going to have a problem with that. (10) The more gated the community, the more guarded the wallet. The best tips actually come from middle- and lower-class people who know what we go through. (11) I remember every customer who doesn't tip. I won't do anything to jeopardize my job, but shaking the soda on the next delivery would not be out of the question.”
In this age of ailing economy, the strapped-for-cash pizza delivery guy needs all the financial help he can get. But it’s a truth sometimes lost on the impatiently waiting customer who’d rather spend his own hard-earned cash on extra pizza toppings than a generous tip for the kid at the door.
Indeed, the gospel passage we hear today addresses the topic of generosity with the God-given resources at our disposal. We are invited to examine our wealth of time, talent and money, asking how best to use these gifts for the building up of God’s kingdom. And while the very human tendency is to suppose that such wealth is ours, something we’ve worked hard to achieve or attain, the truth is that whatever we have is given from above, a gift to be used in continuing God’s work on earth, the furtherance of the heavenly kingdom in our midst.
In today’s gospel passage we hear the familiar story of a young man who wants with all his heart (most of it, anyway) to follow the path Jesus marks out for those who wish to inherit eternal life. Confessing to keeping all the commandments, the young man asks Jesus what more is necessary. And the response of Jesus, sharp as a sword, deflates in a flash the young man’s enthusiasm. “Jesus said to him, ‘Go, sell what you have, and give to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven; then come follow me.’” (Mark 10:21) The young man turned away, saddened by the truth that he was shackled to earthly possessions, unable to free himself even for the promise of eternity. But sad as that young man was, I imagine Jesus was sadder as he turned to address his disciples. “How hard it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.” (Mark 10:23, 25)
In truth, that young man’s challenge is the challenge put to every Christian: can we free ourselves from earthly treasure so to gain everlasting treasure? While it’s surely asking a lot, especially from those whose possessions are many, recently I collided with a group of young people who were able to focus more on heavenly treasure than on earthly even as they prepared to launch a sick old man toward eternity.
It was a real collision, 5:30 AM on a dark late August Friday morning. As sleepily I rounded a curve on the bridgeway adjoining the hospital parking garage to the main lobby, the silent entourage just about knocked me off my feet. Whizzing by, a white sheeted figure in a wheeled recliner ran over one of my feet as the 4 giggling nurses pushing it apologized profusely for the hit-and-run. They were in a rush, they yelled back to me as they moved on, but they’d explain later. What in the world was this, I wondered. Something of a prison break? A patient smuggled out of the hospital under cover of darkness? I remember, just before I was run over, seeing the wide smile and bright eyes of the old man in the recliner, white-shrouded except for his uncovered elfish face. I recognized him. Jerry from the ICU.
Later that morning, Jerry now back in his assigned bed in the ICU, I asked his nurse about the early morning activity that left my foot still throbbing. “Well,” she said, “You know Jerry’s been with us for quite a while now, and a few days ago he was told there’s nothing more we can do for him except keep him comfortable. He cried and we did too. He’s such a sweet man.” She paused for a moment to dab her tearing eyes. “Later that day he said he just wanted to see one more sun rise before he died.” She paused again to dab at her eyes, but smiled brightly as she then continued. “That’s what you saw this morning. You know that our staffing is strapped to the max, so four nurses volunteered to come in unpaid on their day off to bring Jerry up to the top level of the hospital parking garage so he could see the sun rise. He got his wish.”
What in the world was this, I’d wondered earlier that morning? Something akin to a prison break? No, it was 4 young nurses preparing to launch a sick old man toward eternity; 4 young nurses willing to swap paid hours for something money can’t buy: the wide smile and bright eyes of Jerry, their patient, their friend, soon to be their heavenly advocate. Could anyone be richer than they?