All Things Are Possible

October 14, 2014

28^th Sunday in Ordinary Time 2012 B

By Rev. Joe McCloskey, SJ

I prayed, and prudence was given me; I pleaded, and the spirit of wisdom came to me.  Wisdom 7:7

Indeed the word of God is living and effective, sharper than any two-edged sword, penetrating even between soul and spirit, joints and marrow, and able to discern reflections and thoughts of the heart.  No creature is concealed from him, but everything is naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must render an account.  Hebrews 4:12-13

"Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for one who is rich to enter the kingdom of God."  They were exceedingly astonished and said among themselves, "Then who can be saved?"  Jesus looked at them and said, "For human beings it is impossible, but not for God.  All things are possible for God."  Mark 10:24b-27

Piety

Piety is the lived-out wisdom of God.  Piety is the perfection of one’s following of the Lord.  The young man of the Gospel story had too much to give up following the Lord completely.  He was too comfortable to be able to make the big choices of following the Lord all the way.  He did not have the spiritual strength to surrender the privileges of life that flowed from his wealth and his possessions.  Appearances can make the following of the Lord too difficult for some because they think they have too much they would have to give up to follow the One who gave up all the privileges of God to be one of us.  The miracle of a God-love is almost impossible to comprehend without being free enough to give up one’s easy street for the hard road of the cross.  God makes us so free in life that we can be captured by the vision of false glitter and pomp and ceremony.  We have to pray for prudence if we want to make God-choices in our lives.  Wisdom comes to us if we pray.  Wisdom allows one to spurn riches as nothing in comparison to belonging to Christ.   Men are too interested in scepter and throne.   Riches are nothing in comparison with wisdom.  All good things come in the company of the wisdom that makes good choices possible.  The scandal of the cross is God’s wisdom.  The word of God is sharper than any two-edged sword because it penetrates between soul and spirit and allows one to choose as God would choose.

Study

We study the choices of Christ so that we can put on his mind and his heart.  Christ is the principle and the foundation of a good spirituality.  Christ is truly the way, the truth and the life.  By his human actions he reveals to us the wisdom of God.  God knew us and loved us before we were born.  He created us out of his desire to love us.  We study how to make a good response to God’s love.  The fullness of the wisdom of life is revealed in the words and the action of Christ.  He loves us even as the Father has loved him.  He invites us to do likewise with all our brothers and sisters.  We study the needs of the people of God so that we do not misplace our actions on things that do not bear on the love of God for us.

Action

We invite the Lord to take over our lives.  Our best action is offering our freedom back to Christ.  We pray the Lord to take and receive our mind, will and understanding.  We beg the Lord to inspire our actions.  And we tell the Lord to carry out in our lives what we ought to be doing to live up to the plan God has for us.  God gave us our freedom to love him.  When we give our freedom back to the Lord, we are loving God even as God has loved us through Christ.