Homily for the Twenty-Eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time October 13, 2024

A young man from a wealthy family was about to graduate from high school. It was the custom in his affluent neighborhood for the parents to give the graduate a car as a graduation present. Bill and his father spent months looking at cars, and the week before graduation they found the perfect one. Bill was certain that the car would be his on graduation night.

Imagine Bill’s disappointment when, on the eve of his big day, his father handed him a gift-wrapped Bible! Bill was so angry, he hurled the Bible across the room and stormed out of the house, vowing never to return again. Bill and his father never saw each other again. Yet it was news of his father’s death that brought Bill back home again.

One night, as he sat going through his father’s possessions that he was to inherit, Bill came across the Bible that his father had given him. He brushed away the dust and opened it to find a cashier’s check, dated the day of his graduation—for the exact amount of the car they had chosen together.

In today’s gospel, we read about the man who went away sad “for he had many possessions.” In doing so, he defined and declared what his true wealth was, and, you might say, he flung away the chance to have a life of intimacy with Jesus. I wonder if, later on, he thought about that encounter. And with whatever choices he had made in life, was he truly happy and fulfilled in the end?

Over the years, I’ve met several people who, like the young man in the story, flung the Bible and walked away. There were people who had lost a loved one to cancer, and they wanted nothing more to do with God again. There were people who had made bad investments, lost their fortunes, and never came to church again. There were people who were passed over when they thought they deserved a promotion where they worked, and they became bitter about it, and made others feel pretty miserable, and were angry because of the injustice and unfairness of life, and of God, as well.

Now the beautiful part of the story with which we began is that, when the son returned to his family home, the father had not thrown out anything. The Bible with the check still in it was still there. He could have cashed the check, or stopped payment on it, or torn it to pieces. But he didn’t do that. And in the end, the son could discover that his father had loved him all along. And that kind of love, that’s precious.

It says in the text of today’s gospel that Jesus, looking at the man before him, “loved him and said to him, ‘You are lacking one thing…’” Jesus loved him. The advice he offered wasn’t some kind of punishment; it was wisdom. If money, or power, or prestige have become the most important things in your life, you’re missing out on the greatest gift of all! Let God be your treasure. The other things will still be there, but in their proper place.

If you want to see what an excessive love for money, power and prestige can do, just look at many of the people in Washington. Think of what power and corruption and the love of money have done to them. Think of the values they are now modeling for our children. We’re now living in a world of hatred, division, violence, indifference, cruelty and lying just to get ahead. Just to get more money and more power.

It’s easy to throw the Bible away, or to ignore it, or re-interpret it so that it’s more convenient, and more in line with your thinking. But Jesus didn’t come into this world to be re-interpreted! He spoke the truth, in the name of God, and the rich and powerful didn’t like it, so they killed him. But the truth survived, and it’s still here, waiting, not only to be heard, but to be lived. It’s never too late. An old, dusty unused Bible can still be opened, with all its riches still inside.