Homily: Why Not Take All of Me?

Year B / Ordinary Time / Twenty-eighth Sunday

Readings: Wisdom 7.7-11 / Psalm 89.12-13, 14-15, 16-17 (R/v 14) / Hebrews 4. 12-13 / Mark 10.17-30

I like listening to Jazz standards sung by Ella Fitzgerald, Frank Sinatra and Michael Buble. A standard they have all sung and I like has this opening line: “All of me, why not take all of me; can’t you see, I’m no good without you.” The romantics among us may have sung these words to the one we love. Others might echo it to those we emulate and want to follow. 

I’d like to think that the rich young man in our gospel reading today also had these words in mind when he asked Jesus how to inherit eternal life. What else can his question, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” be but that yearning to give all of himself to do everything that will help him gain eternal life.

But when the rubber hits the road, when Jesus asks him for that one more thing needed for salvation, he couldn’t do it. He couldn’t sell his possessions and give those earnings to the poor. Yes, he couldn’t abandon himself totally to follow Jesus.

Aren’t we sometimes like the young man? Haven’t you and I wanted to give ourselves totally to following Jesus? Haven’t we thought about this now and again in prayer, and uttered it a few times during retreats? Who amongst us here has not especially pledged all of ourselves to Jesus in exchange for passing our exams, finding our life partner, getting the right job, or procuring a loved one’s healing from sickness and death? I know I have; I think you have too. 

Sadly, when Jesus asks more of us, our human instinct is to hold back parts of ourselves from him. Surprisingly, we do this most often in good and happy times. It’s no wonder our buoyant holy desires to give all of ourselves to Jesus often just fizzle out and go flat.

Because we know that we have failed and that we will fail again and again, I think many of us would find Jesus’ image about the camel going through the eye of the needle startling and challenging. It should disturb us because its a stark reminder that it is indeed impossible for you and I, as we are, to give all of ourselves to God. We simply can’t do this on our own effort.

Perhaps, you are shock to hear this, as I was shocked when I first realised it in prayer. The disciples were equally shocked as they heard Jesus speak about the ease of the camel entering the needle’s eye and not the rich into heaven.  

The rich should be able to secure first class tickets into God’s kingdom with their good works. They could build synagogues, help the needy, sponsor the Temple sacrifices with their wealth. But for Jesus, their wealth was an obstacle to salvation.

Jesus’ image of the camel and needle is in fact addressed to us, we who are pious in our faith practices, generous in supporting the poor, fastidious in observing the church’s rules and regulations. Like the wealthy in Jesus’ day, we who go to confession regularly and come to communion Sunday after Sunday faithfully could find ourselves without those first class tickets that will admit us into God’s kingdom. How so? Because the quality of our Christian lives may be the very obstacle to our salvation.

Wealth brings power and pride, and, often, the delusion that one has no need for others, even for God. Similarly, the ways we practice our Christian faith can make us self-righteous in judging others, self-centered in sharing the faith and self-serving in caring for the poor. We need to be careful that we don’t make our faith a way of life with God that is all about me-I-and-myself. 

If being rich can cause one to think of himself as the center of the world, being a holier-than-thou Christian can lead us far away from Jesus and his way of giving all of oneself to God and neighbor. 

If what I have shared disturbs you, you have every right to ask Jesus the same question the disciples asked him, “Who can be saved?” Jesus’ answer surprises: he does not identify who will be saved; he simply proclaims who will save us—God.  

God will save us because it is humanly impossible for us to save ourselves. God gives us Jesus’ self-giving spirit as the gift to save us. This is the spirit that empowers us to give ourselves completely to God and neighbor.

We receive this gift at baptism. God renews this gift in confession, and in communion God nourishes it. But it is when give all of ourselves to God in right relationship and to neighbor through life-giving friendships that care, accompany and uplift others that we are truly saved. Then, we fulfill our Christ-like identity: we live and love like Jesus did. 

The rich young man keeps the commandments, but for Jesus even this isn’t good enough for salvation. His property runs his life, and he is not free enough to follow Jesus by losing himself to find himself. 

What about you and me? We keep the faith, even as we struggle to do this well, but what really keeps us from being free to follow Jesus now, and to find ourselves by losing ourselves in him?

Today Jesus startles and challenges us to up the quality of our Christian life. We could go home remembering only this. But our gospel reading is richer; it offers us certain hope that we can in fact give all of ourselves to Jesus.  We find this hope in how Jesus addresses his disciples as he teaches them. 

When Jesus muses, “How hard it is to enter the kingdom of God,” he addresses the disciples as “my children”. This image of disciples as children brings us back to last Sunday’s gospel reading. Then, we heard about how the disciples were trying to shoo away some children. Jesus became indignant and instructed them to let the children come to him for their rightful inheritance is God’s kingdom. “Amen I say to you, whoever does not accept the kingdom of God like a child will not enter it.” 

For Jesus, one receives God’s kingdom by being child-like. If you’ve observed children, you’d notice that they happily receive gifts with an enthusiastic openness and an abiding trust: they put out their hands and say, “give me.” The relationship they have with mommy and daddy give them the confidence to do this.

We too can be like children and come confidently to God to ask for our inheritance of eternal life in God’s kingdom. We can do this because our relationship with Jesus in the present allows us to enjoy God’s kingdom now, even as we await its fullness to come. The rich young man wanted to earn his inheritance as a future reward from God. Being in relationship with Jesus must assure us otherwise: eternal life is an inheritance we can already savor even now. This should give us certain hope that it is in giving all of ourselves to Jesus that we will have the way, the truth and the life to God.  

May be when you and I dare to give all of ourselves to Jesus, we will then hear in the timbre of his voice the loving cadence of God saying to us, “all of me, why not take all of me?”  How will you answer God?

Preached at St Ignatius Church, Singapore

photo by christopher peterson, www.dailymail.co.uk