Father Rick Bolte's Homily

B:28th SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

2009-10-11

Don’t you sort of hate today’s gospel reading? It’s hard to hear Jesus say how hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God. I wish I could say that we are not the rich. We don’t normally think of ourselves as rich. The dollars we earn seem stretched just to cover mortgage payments, car payments, credit card bills, funding retirement, funding children’s education, etc. We like to think of the rich as those CEO’s that got billion dollar bonuses and those who own private jets and yachts. But we are the rich. There are 7 billion people in the world and we are easily in the top 5% for wealth and income. The population of the USA is about 6% of the world’s population and we use 40% of the world’s resources.

Sometimes we try to give ourselves a way out by saying we have it because we earned it, we deserve what we have because of our work ethic. It’s hard to maintain that posture if we visit the poor in third world countries. There we can find many who work 12-14 hours a day, in the sun and often in hazardous conditions, and six or seven days a week just to have enough to put food on the table for their family. They work to making something we in turn can buy cheaply.

We might even think that these issues aren’t all that important since many have considered themselves “good Catholics” without such concern. However such limited perspective involves ignoring Jesus’ words to us in scripture. Even more challenging than today’s reading is the story in Luke of the rich man and Lazarus. The rich man has not harmed Lazarus and he has not gotten his wealth by any immoral means. But simply because he ignored Lazarus he is condemned to the netherworld.

OK, so now we’re feeling guilty. But that’s not the goal and it’s not particularly helpful. We’ve felt guilty before and that’s why we don’t like today’s reading. Guilt we can’t resolve we try to cover up. Our collections of various items for the needy and the present collection to support new mothers are certainly noble efforts. But sometimes such giving is only a veneer where we can look generous and so ignore the guilt. I know there have been several times I’ve walked out of Mass and wanted to change my life around, to be as prayerful and generous as Jesus was. That usually lasts about a day. The goal is so high I invariably fail. On my own I don’t persevere.

On Friday in the scripture study class we talked about accountability partners. The idea was to share your goals for prayer and the sharing of time and treasure with a close friend. The purpose is not for the other to pass judgment. Likely if two people are sharing their efforts together, they will both be struggling. The idea is to share your own goals for prayer time, how you intend to spend your free time (or busy time with different priorities), and how you spend your money. On a regular basis you report honestly how things have gone. Who to choose as a partner is mostly about having a friend who is willing to walk this spiritual journey with you. If there too close, they may have a vested interest (such as a spouse and how you spend time or money). But they do need to be close enough of a friend that you can dare to be honest about your failures without judgment. Mostly it’s a person who would be willing to be truly honest with you and patient in listening. Also you can build up trust over time. You may begin sharing on a limited basis and build up to greater sharing as the partnership progresses.

Bottom line is we don’t want to leave here today just feeling guilty and seeking to hide our guilt. Nor do we want to leave with ideas in our head that everyday life pressures will make us forget. To be accountable is to commit to a path that you feel called by God to walk. Jesus tells us, “How hard it is for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!" and “It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for one who is rich to enter the kingdom of God." Let’s not walk away without hope or ignoring the truth. Let’s commit to the journey of faith seeking to respond to Christ’s challenge and truly reform our lives.