The Catholic Calendar for Sunday, October 15, 2000
The Twenty-Eighth Week in Ordinary Time
Scripture from today's Liturgy of the Word:
Wisdom 7: 7-11
Psalm 90: 12-17
Hebrews 4: 12-13
Mark 10: 17-30
Full text: http://www.nccbuscc.org/nab/index.htm
A reflection on today's Scripture:
Too many possessions.
I once visited a cemetery filled with huge, impressive monuments and
statues; it was as though families were vying with one another in
displaying their wealth and love for their departed members. Beneath
them lay the moldering remains of generations past, and I stood
wondering what lasting good their wealth had brought to others' lives.
Material wealth provided them with luxurious lifestyles, social
standing, worldly power, but such things are perishable, and in fact can
be corrupting. They distract us from and deprive us of that which is of
the very essence of human existence: being workers in God's vineyard,
being living witnesses (not lifeless monuments) to His goodness and
generosity.
Such is the gift that Christ offered the rich man who, though strictly
keeping the Commandments, lacked two equally important considerations:
detachment from this world's goods and a deep attachment to God with its
companion desire for "other-worldly" possessions. In turning away from
Christ, the rich man denied himself the infinitely more precious
spiritual riches awaiting those who forfeit the tangible for the
intangible.
Though the man went away, unable to make the sacrifices Christ asks of
His followers, yet Jesus assures His disciples that the man's case is
not hopeless; for God is ever pursuing souls, seeking to gift them with
eternal life. The most precious inheritance any of us can leave those we
love are the fruits of having lived in God's Word, abided in Christ's
truth and love.
Merciful Lord,
turn our eyes away from temporal riches
and toward the eternal.
Amen.
- Marie L. Bocko OCDS
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