October 11, 2021
Paulist Fr. Rich Andre preached this homily on the 28th Sunday of Ordinary Time (Year B) on October 10, 2021, at St. Austin Catholic Parish in Austin, TX. The homily is based on the day’s readings: Wisdom 7:7-11; Psalm 90; Hebrews 4:12-13; and Mark 10:17-30.
In our gospel, a man who has been faithful to the commandments asks Jesus what more he must do to inherit eternal life. When Jesus tells him that he needs to sell his possessions, he is crestfallen. When Jesus says this, perhaps we are crestfallen, too. But all is not lost. I’d like to think that Jesus knew what was holding this particular man back in his ongoing quest for holiness, and that is why Jesus suggested that this man sell all his possessions.
Clearly, many of us have obligations to other people that we could not fulfill if we all took vows of poverty. I think the more important question today is: what is holding each of us back in our journey of discipleship? Is there an obvious “next step” that we’ve been afraid to take?
Let us God to continue showering us with mercy.
Lord Jesus, you were born into our world and walked among us. Lord, have mercy.
Christ Jesus, you understand the challenges that hold us back from following you more closely…
Lord Jesus, you send us your Holy Spirit to help us surmount these challenges.
When Pope John XXIII was growing up, he despaired that he was not as holy as St. Aloysius. But eventually, he had a revelation: it wasn’t that he wasn’t as holy as Aloysius; he was different from Aloysius. As the good pope later explained:
I am not St. Aloysius, nor must I seek holiness in his particular way, but according to the requirements of my own nature, my own character and the different conditions of my life. I must not be the dry, bloodless reproduction of a model, however perfect…. If St. Aloysius had been as I am, he would have become holy in a different way.
Now, we’ve all probably heard plenty of homilies on our gospel passage today extolling the virtues of religious life, the life of nuns, brothers, and priests like me who give up their possessions and their homes to travel wherever Christ calls us. It’s a wonderful life, and I am convinced that other people in this parish are called to serve the church as religious, as deacons, and as priests. In fact, one former parishioner made his profession with the Marist Brothers last month, and another parishioner plans to join the Franciscans next year. However, to focus this homily so narrowly misses an important point. At the time of Jesus, people mistakenly thought that the wealthiest people were the holiest: their wealth was a sign of God’s favor. So, it was a big shock for the disciples to hear Jesus declare that wealth was an obstacle to entering the kingdom of God.
Each of us is called to a life of holiness. God has given each of us different gifts. I’m not called to be Aloysius or John XXIII. The Holy Spirit calls us to be ourselves, but to be the best version of ourselves. And for each of us, different obstacles and temptations hold us back from traveling the path to holiness. If each of us ran up to Jesus, knelt before him, and asked him what more we needed to do to inherit eternal life, what would he say to us?
No, really. Let’s take some time and think about it. If we had a good one-on-one conversation with Jesus about our life of holiness and we asked him what one thing we should change, what would it be? And if we haven’t had a one-on-one conversation with Jesus in a while, why haven’t we? There’s another term for “one-on-one conversation with Jesus.” It’s called prayer.
We need to continue to have these conversations with Jesus throughout our lives. Mark notes that Jesus looks on the rich man with love. The author of our first reading says that once he received God’s wisdom, all good things came to him, but he appreciated wisdom more than wealth, power, beauty, or even health.
But the quest for seeking God’s wisdom is not something we all have to do by ourselves. This is why we come to church! We pray in community so that we can see ourselves within the lives of others and see how we can make a profound difference with our lives. And sometimes, things need to change.
In 1959, less than 3 months after being elected pope, John XXIII stunned the world by calling for the Second Vatican Council. We’re still debating the impact of Vatican II, but John XXIII’s feast day coincides not with the date of his death like it does for most saints, but with his opening of the council. The 59th anniversary of the opening of the Second Vatican Council, the Feast of St. John XXIII, one of the patron saints of the Paulist Fathers, is… Monday, October 11, the very day of St. Austin Catholic Parish’s groundbreaking ceremony for the new development. I don’t think it’s a coincidence!
My understanding is that tomorrow is the culmination of the third attempt in the past 30 years to address the slow-motion long-term crisis of St. Austin Catholic Parish: at some point, our buildings would reach a point where they could no longer be sufficiently repaired to sustain our mission. But change is so scary. It requires letting go of all that was, as wonderful as it was. It requires many sacrifices in the interim to bring about a future full of possibilities.
As Good Pope John addressed the council 59 years ago, he understood that change entails risk and sacrifice. Hardly anyone knew that he had been diagnosed with cancer, and that he had chosen to forego treatment in order to preside at the beginning of the Council. Nevertheless, he urged the Church to engage with the world, rather than to remain isolated from the world. He encouraged those who were afraid of change to take heart. He said:
It is necessary first of all that the Church should never depart from the sacred… truth received from [those who have gone before us]. But at the same time, [the Church] must ever look… to the new conditions and new forms of life introduced into the modern world which have opened new avenues to the Catholic apostolate.
The mission of the St. Austin Catholic Parish community is to pray, to teach, and to serve. In this time of transition, we will continue to pray – our church building will remain untouched. We will continue to teach – but future generations of students in both St. Austin Catholic School and in our faith formation program will do so in much better facilities, and there will be extra rooms available on Sundays for more adult faith formation programs. And most importantly, as the pandemic has already shown us, we will continue to serve – but with greatly expanded abilities to meet the needs of whatever the future holds for central Texas.
Of course, there’s always more to do to advance the mission of Jesus Christ. SO let’s ask that question again: if we cran up to Jesus, knelt before him, and asked him what more we needed to do to inherit eternal life, what would he say to us? May we listen to the invitation of Jesus, act on it with the boldness of John XXIII, but using our own gifts in our own circumstances… and then, let’s start building the future, together!