WE NEED WISDOM TO CHOOSE RIGHTLY IF WE MUST EARN SALVATION

A little child was playing one day with a valuable vase, and suddenly his hand got stuck inside the vase that he was unable to remove it. He cried and attracted the attention of the father who came to rescue his anguished son but couldn’t also help him remove his hand from the vase after so much effort.

He was about breaking the most valuable vase in the house when a thought came to him, he told the son to open his finger and stretch out his hand inside the vase and then pull out his hand gently. To the father’s astonishment, his anguished and painful looking son responded. “Oh no, Dad, I can’t free my fingers like that” and the father sharply responded “why” and the son replied “Because if I do, my penny will drop.” Many of us are like the little child, so busy holding on to the worthless pennies of the world at the expense of our freedom and salvation.

The rich young man in today’s gospel is a good example of one who wants eternal life but will not let go of “the peanuts of riches”. The rich young man is the metaphor of our lives in our inordinate attachment to ephemerals. His tragedy is that he loves “things” more than human, thus breaking the commandments against idolatry and the love of neighbor cf (Ex 20:3, Mk 12:31). He worshipped his wealth more than he worshipped God. In fact his possessions “possessed” him.

It was Fr. Emma Onu of blessed memory who once said, “When we become owned by what we own, we lack the inner freedom to choose rightly.”

Jesus noticed from the rich young man’s reply, a dark spot in his life which was a lack that needed to be filled. He lacked poverty of the spirit not poverty of riches. He was not poor worldly and also not rich in spirit. He burnt his fingers when he asserted his righteousness before God on account of his own strength.

Keeping commandment alone for Jesus is not enough but furthering it with good deeds. Jesus wanted him to build his spiritual poverty level but his face fell flat as he left sorrowfully away. Being poor in the spirit is when we realize we have nothing to commend ourselves before a Holy God, when we realize that no righteousness of ours is achievable outside the grace of God and finally, when we realize our total dependence on the ocean reservoir of God’s mercy and grace cf (Ps 145:8-9) and detachment from our own possessions and acquisitions. It does not mean also that rich people can’t be poor in spirit, because Abraham, Job, David, Zacchaeus etc were rich but still depended totally on God for their lives.

My dear beloved, this young man lacked poverty of the spirit, you and I may be lacking other things which we need to get rid of to erase the dark spot in our souls. It may be anger, apathy, lies, alcohol, drugs, lust, unfaithfulness, theft, sexual immoralities or syncretism.

The quest for wealth and riches has led so many to do ungodly things as our economy slide deep into worthlessness with each passing day. Corruption has become a culture in all fabrics of our society and nation because we can’t let go of vicious pennies in our hands.

The “Bobrisky saga” few months ago opened up endemic can of warms in the Nigerian Correctional Centers that one will ask “Who is safe in this country?” The level of corruption in the civil service is almost overriding that of the political class because of our attachment to worldly possessions.

The young man though desired heaven but was unable to let go of his “worldly penny” for the “heavenly prize”. We all in like manner desire heaven but how many of us are ready to let go of the “penny” of insincerity, of the “penny” of corruption, of the penny of nepotism and of the “penny” of envy in our hands in our various endeavors of life.

I pray and urge you my beloved in Christ to borrow a leaf from the first reading (Wis 7:7-11) and solicit for wisdom to enable you make better choices. The young man was sincere in search for salvation but lacked the needed wisdom that could have given him discipline and detachment to make the right choice. Lack of wisdom leads to sorrow, no wonder he left away sorrowfully. Ironically, it was only this young man and Judas that met Jesus and left sorrowfully away because they lacked discipline, detachment and wisdom.

My dearly beloved, as we ask for wisdom to make the right choice, I indulge us to trust in the efficacy of the word of God which is God himself cf (Jn 1:1) as the second reading encourages us in the letter to the Hebrews (Heb 4:12-13) to be firm in letting go of our earthly possessions in preference for our heavenly treasures.

I finally, pray for the courage to let go of the “ vicious penny” in our hands to enable us secure our freedom from the ephemeral “vase” entanglement of this world for an eternal security of the world to come.
-Rev. Fr. Fidelis O. Asogwa (Fadafido)