OMELIE / Omelie EN

13 ott 2024

13/10/2024 - 28th Sunday in O.T. - B

13/10/2024 - 28th Sunday in O.T. - B

Reading 1 WIS 7,7-11 Psalm 89 Reading 2 HEB 4,12-13 Gospel MK 10,17-30

The Gospel is showing us a rich man who admits he…poor! The person who runs to throw himself at Jesus’ feet is rich, and he is also someone who observes all God’s commandments. He runs because he realised he is missing something, and he makes himself a beggar of it. He is missing the life he defines as “eternal”, so the fullness of life, the joy of life, the satisfaction of being fulfilled also thinking of the crucial moment of death. He has realised that wealth is not satisfying him, and neither is making him fulfilled nor happy. The wealth is not opening for him the gates of heaven. Wealth is holding him back in his relationship with God and men.

He runs to Jesus: who told him that Jesus can add something to the life of the rich? The question he addresses Him is serious and sincere: “what must I do…?”.

Jesus does not give him the answer right away, He first wants to make sure that He is serious about it, that he is committed and positive in doing God’s will. When He is certain of this – in fact he tells Him he is following all the commandments – then He looks at him lovingly, because He realises he could truly become a carrier for the fullness of God in the world, and cooperate with Him.

Jesus now answers him. In order to have eternal life he needs to give up feeding off things that are transitory and start consuming those which will not pass. They who eat Him, Jesus, will live: «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.!».

This is the secret of life. Jesus has come in the world, sent by the Father, so the Children of God might have the eternal life. In fact, they who welcome Him start a new life and discover joy, discover a new world, and nothing can distract him, not even the sufferings and the possibility of being tortured: nowadays give us proof of this men and women who have discovered Jesus coming from other religions. Instead, people who have decided to keep accumulating earthly things, are left lifeless and the sadness closes their hearts. So happened to the person who ran to Jesus then, and so happens now to many, closed to heavenly things, unable to open themselves to Jesus, burdened by an infinite sadness.

Do you want the life? Love the true wisdom: “all gold, in view of her, is a little sand, and before her, silver is to be accounted mire”. The true wisdom comes from God, and it is Jesus. He is God’s Word, what God the Father wants men to listen to, know about, receive and tell one another. He is the word “living and effective, sharper than any two-edged sword”.

Jesus is the gift through which God is telling us about Himself, His true and eternal life. We will continue to welcome Him, in a more and more serious and deep way, letting ourselves being taught by Him and living with Him constantly present in our heart. They who do not welcome Him cannot then either find the way to communicate with others, any other.

They who deprive themselves of Jesus are left in darkness and solitude: you know it too, both because of personal experience and because you cannot feel close even to your closest relatives if they do not share with you a little faith in Him.

Therefore you will not look for wealth, you will not strive to increase the amount of money you own: you will look for Him, who lets you live and makes of you a living gift for those you love and those you meet on the roads of the world. You will make yours the prayer in the Psalm in between the readings, which is making us say: “Teach us to number our days aright, that we may gain wisdom of heart”!