(Twenty-eighth Sunday of the Year (B): This homily was given on October
11, 2015 at St. Pius X Church, Westerly, R.I., by Fr. Raymond Suriani. Read Hebrews 4: 12-13; Mark 10: 17-30.)
[For the audio version of this homily, click here: Twenty-eighth Sunday 2015]
Doctors call it “accidental awareness during general anesthesia” (AAGA
for short). It’s the experience—the very
unpleasant experience—of waking up
during an operation. In AAGA episodes patients
are put under general anesthesia and the surgeries are started—but before the
procedures are completed the patients become conscious again. They become aware of what’s going on around
them and of what’s being done to
them.
Thankfully, this phenomenon only happens once in every 19,000 surgeries.
But here’s a warning: If at some point in the future you happen to be that
1 person in 19,000, do not—I repeat, do not—try to get up and leave the operating
room immediately after you wake up! Now
you might be tempted to try to do that in the midst of the anxiety of the
moment (“Get me out of here!”), but with the procedure only partly finished
you’d be in no condition to go on with your life and function normally.
In fact, you’d probably die in the attempt.
“But Fr. Ray, that could never happen!
No one could get up in the middle of a major operation and leave the
operating room—even if they wanted to!”
True. Physically speaking it
would never happen and could never happen.
But I mention it today because, spiritually speaking, it happens all the
time! In the spiritual order, many
people do in fact leave the physician—the divine
Physician—after he’s begun the “surgery” that will cure them, but before he finishes the operation.
Case in point: the rich young man in today’s gospel story.
But first a word about our second reading from Hebrews 4. There the sacred author compares the word of
God to a “two-edged sword”—a cutting instrument like a surgeon’s scalpel—that separates one body part from another
(“joints and marrow”), and which, in the process, reveals physical diseases and
conditions that need to be dealt with and, hopefully, cured.
His point is that when we hear God’s word proclaimed in Scripture or in
a homily or in some other fashion, it will “cut us” at times—if we’re really
listening! In other words, it will
reveal to us the attitudes and the sins that we need to deal with in order to
become the people the Lord wants us to be and knows that we can be.
And that’s good! Even though it
hurts, it’s good. When a surgeon cuts
you open to repair your heart or remove a cancerous tumor you can be absolutely
sure of one thing: it’s gonna hurt (at least after the anesthesia wears off!). But that’s the first step—the necessary first step—in the process of
getting better.
Which brings us, finally, to the rich young man in this gospel. Jesus, the divine Physician, “cuts” him with
his word by challenging him to come to terms with—and to let go of—his
materialism and his selfishness. And
notice that it’s done in love! When God
convicts us of a certain sin it doesn’t “feel” like a very loving act, but it
is! And so it was for this young
man. He certainly wasn’t feeling a lot
of love after Jesus said to him, “You are lacking in one thing. Go, sell what you have, and give to the poor
and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.”
Jesus, of course, didn’t have to say that to him. He could have just given the young man credit
for keeping the Ten Commandments so well in his youth, patted him on the back,
and allowed him to go on his merry way.
But Jesus loved the boy too much to do that! As the text says, “Jesus, looking at him,
loved him.” Our Lord loved the rich
young man just as he was—but too much to let him stay that way. And so Jesus used the “scalpel of his word”
to make a very deep incision into the young man’s soul, by telling him that he
needed to sell his stuff, give to the poor and then become a full-time
disciple.
Our Lord knew that that was the only way for him to be healed of the
materialism and selfishness that were destroying him from the inside out, like
a cancerous tumor.
You might say that at that decisive moment the rich young man was on
the “spiritual operating table”—fully
conscious—as Jesus the divine Physician made his incision.
Then he got up and left.
The cut was made, his spiritual sickness was clearly revealed—but
before he could be cured, he left. He
left right in the middle of the “surgery”.
And the Bible says he went away sad—which will probably come as a big surprise
to every materialistic person who reads or hears this story, because for the rich
young man nothing had changed! Ostensibly,
everything in his life was exactly the same.
He still had all his money (Jesus hadn’t asked him for a donation for
his ministry); he still had all his “stuff”; he still had everything that he
thought would make him happy in his life.
But he wasn’t happy.
I think this rich young man sensed that, in making the decision he
made, he would be missing out on something—something really big and really important. Now the interesting question is: What exactly
was that big and important thing that he would be missing out on (besides the
opportunity to get rid of his sins of materialism and selfishness)?
Well, notice the instruction that Jesus gives him at the very end of
their encounter. Our Lord says to him,
“Come, follow me.”
That, you will recall, was the same thing that he had said to the
Twelve when he called them to be his Apostles.
Which leads me to wonder: Was this man destined to be Judas’
replacement? Was that ultimately God’s
will for him? Remember, after Judas
hanged himself someone had to be chosen to replace him. An “office”—an apostolic office—needed to be
filled, and a man named Matthias was eventually chosen to fill it. Well, perhaps this young man would have been
the one picked had he been around, since he had been originally called to
follow our Lord in the very same way that Peter and John and the other Apostles
had been called.
We don’t know for sure whether or not that would have happened, but it
could have—if he hadn’t walked away.
The lesson of all this, then, is very simple: When Dr. Jesus “cuts” you with his word, stay on the operating table—so
that a healing can occur in your soul! Learn
from the mistake the rich young man made.
When the word reminds you of your materialism or your selfishness or of some
other sin that you need to repent of and confess AND WHICH YOU’D MUCH RATHER
IGNORE, don’t ignore it! Repent in your
heart, and then take it to confession—where Dr. Jesus can finish the surgery,
and make you well.