On Pastoral and Solidarity Visit to eSwatini
Bishop Sithembele SIPUKA
Bishop of Mthatha and SACBC President
Homily
28th Sunday of the Ordinary time
Jesus was setting out on a journey and a certain young man ran up to him, knelt and put the question to him ‘What must I do to inherit eternal life?’
Certain words are more than what they appear. For example, in today’s gospel, we are told that Jesus was setting out on a journey and this jourey was leading to Jerusalem where he was to face the sufferings and through those suffering come to glory. And as he is on way to Jerusalem. Jesus had come to accept that his mission would be fulfilled through suffering by dying in by dying in Jerusalem. And so, in the Luke Chapter 9: 51 we hear it being reported that Jesus “set his face to go to Jerusalem”, “he resolutely went to Jerusalem” to go and die there. So set is he on this journey that when Peter in Mark 8:32, tries to prevent him from going to Jerusalem, Jesus rebukes him, and says “get behind me Satan for you’re your way of thinking is not God’s but man’s”.
As he is setting on his way, very intently on this important journey of his life, we are told that a certain young man ran up to him, knelt before him and put the question to him, ‘What must I do to inherit eternal life?’ Although arrival of this man was not expected by Jesus, and in a way was a kind of disturbance to him because he was set on this journey to Jerusalem, Jesus gave him his full attention. The present moment of the arrival of this young man was important to Jesus. His planned journey to Jerusalem was paused for a while and he attended to the call that was made on him in the here and now.
Jesus teaches us to take seriously the call of the present moment regardless of what our plan is and what our set ways are. This man who turned up out of nowhere made a call on Jesus, and Jesus responded, even though the call was unexpected and cut across what he had planned. The call of the present moment can take all kinds of unexpected forms for us, and, yet it is there that the Lord very often meets us, and we meet him.
The man made an unexpected call on Jesus, ‘What must I do to inherit eternal life?’ From the response of Jesus, which is a bit long winded, it does not appear that Jesus expected this call. He first argues with him, why do you call me good, only God is good. Then instead of answering him, he says to why ask me, you know the commandments, and only after seeing how serious this young man is, to the point that he loved him, the Gospel Gospel says that he “he looked steadily at him and loved him” and then in return he made an unexpected call, on this man, ‘Go and sell everything you own and give the money to the poor — then follow me.’
There is no other person in Mark’s gospel who receives this call from Jesus to sell everything and follow him. This was a call made only for him. This was his call of the present moment. This is what the Lord was asking of him here and now. Jesus’ call on this man was as unexpected as his call on Jesus was unexpected. The man’s reaction to this call of Jesus shows how unexpected it was.
Whereas he had run up to Jesus, breathless, with his burning question, ‘What must I do to inherit eternal life?’, in response to Jesus’ answer to his question we are told that ‘his face fell at these words, and he went away sad, for he was a man of great wealth.’ His excited running to Jesus gave way to his sad walk away from Jesus. The call of the present moment was too much for him to hear, and the fruit of his refusal to hear it was a sadness of heart, a heaviness of spirit. He was attached to his possessions; he couldn’t let go of them, even though letting go of them was his particular calling in life. He was attached to material wealth and could not imagine any better in life than a life of excessive wealth.
And because of that we only know this man today as a young man who came to Jesus, maybe if he had responded to the call of the moment Jesus was inviting him to, maybe we would know his name, and maybe we would be knowing how his life changed and what role he played in the mission in of Christ, but because he was not prepared let go of his excessive possession we know nothing about him today, the potential for which he had that made Jesus to look at him and loved him was never fulfilled.
We are here this morning like the young man to make a call of the moment to Jesus according to where are in life, as individuals, as families as Church and as a nation and lesson we are getting from today’ Gospel is that Jesus will not ignore us, he listens to us, but the second lesson is that he will also make a call of the moment to us too. He is making a call to me, to you, to our families, to our Church and to the nation. The question is how are you going to respond? You have come to Jesus to make a request, but are you prepared to let go of what will make this request unattainable? We have come to Jesus with enthusiasm, but like this young man, are we going to leave Jesus sad because we cannot respond are agree to what he is asking of us?
I have heard the privilege to speak to government officials and citizens of this beautiful country, and in talking to them, my sense is that the call of the moment is for peace and all that goes with what makes for peace, namely respect of the dignity of everybody which finds expression in everyone feeling that he/she is being cared for, that he/she is being listened to and that everyone matters by virtue of their creation in the image of God.
However, for this call of the moment for peace and all that makes for peace to be real, all the stakeholders in the crisis, their majesties, the government, civic grioups and every individual is let go of whatever it is that is holding them back from achieving it. As Jesus stoped on his planned journey to give ear to the call of the moment from the young man, we too are invited to pause on our set ways and listen to each other. We are here together at the time when our Church is launching a synod on being a listening Church. Let us pray that this desire to listen, will be something that every body in this country will want to exercise genuinely.
As the young man was prevented from following Jesus by his attachment to material wealth, the invitation to all involved in this crisis is to examine attitudes and behaviours that we are attached to and which do not make for peace and to let go of them. Jesus’ call to us is to do whatever it is we need to do to achieve peace.
Perhaps some of us have given up on peace and see violence as the only way. Jesus’ call of the moment is that violance, tempting as it is, is not a solution because after violance and destruction, we must still live in this country. If we find the Lord’s call for peaceful resolution of conflict daunting or impossible, we can find reassurance in the Lord’s words to his disciples in the gospel when he says, ‘everything is possible for God.’ What we cannot do on our own, we can do with the Lord’s help. The Lord’s grace at work within us can empower us to live as he is calling us to live. As this beautiful nation grapples and agonises to find peace, stability and justice, I invite it to make the first two lines of today’s first reading its prayer:
I prayed, and understanding was given me.
I entreated, and the spirit of Wisdom came to me.
