28th Sunday of Ordinary Time, Cycle B
Prayer
Father, we believe that Jesus Christ is Your Only Begotten Son and, through Him, we have eternal life. By the power of the Holy Spirit, who makes Christ known, may we always abide in Your love and find our place with You in heaven. We ask this through Christ Our Lord, Amen.
Commentary
1st Reading: Wisdom 7:7-11
As Adam found his suitable partner in Eve, we are to find our most suitable partner in God. Nothing should separate us from our love for God alone.
Our inner heart for God must echo the song of the First Reading for love of Wisdom: “I preferred her to scepter and throne and deemed riches nothing in comparison with her.”
This song is attributed to King Solomon the Wise. When the king was young, God proposed to give him a gift of his choice. Solomon chose wisdom over riches. He needed the wisdom to rule the kingdom wisely. God was pleased with his choice and gave Solomon wisdom — and riches as well.
When we choose God over all other things, we will be wealthy in so many ways. This is why Jesus says in another passage, “Seek first the Kingdom of God and all other things will be added unto you.” (Matt 6:33)
Question:
Do you have a divided heart for God and the things of this world?
2nd Reading: Hebrews 4:12-13
We know that when Adam and Eve had sinned, they hid themselves because they recognized their nakedness.
The Book of Hebrews reminds us that we cannot hide our nakedness and shame from God. Rather, we must stand before God as we are.
When a husband and wife begin to live with each other — day after day — they learn to accept each other’s outward and inward blemishes.
A committed relationship begins with accepting the other — warts and all.
If our divine-human marriage is worth anything, then we must allow ourselves to stand before God — naked and transparent.
I cannot claim to be proud of who I am if I am ashamed to confess my blemishes. I must present myself — warts and all — to my Beloved who lovingly accepts me as I am.
Question:
How do you present yourself to your Beloved God?
Gospel: Mark 10:17-30
If a marriage is only a legally binding contract on paper, then it can easily be dismissed. Marriage is not about legal paperwork. It is about loving and honoring one person forever. To honestly love and honor another means to be committed to the relationship with everything one has.
A husband, after being abusive to his wife, refusing divorce on the basis that he believes in the sanctity of marriage, misses the very point of marriage.
This is the message in our Gospel today. To keep the commands of God is only the beginning of a relationship with the Lord.
Notice, the young man does not ask Jesus, “What must I do to have eternal life with You?” Rather, he asks, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” — Period! There is no relationship and, so when asked to leave his wealth behind and follow the Lord, he goes away.
Just as a man shall leave his mother and a woman leave her home to be wedded, we must leave all things to share in the divine-human marriage proposed to us.
Question:
Is the kingdom of God 1) a place or 2) a relationship for you?
This Week’s Task
Write down three things about heaven that you know are true. Heaven is:
Pray that you will always seek these things of heaven.
Group Prayer
The group offers this prayer from 1 Corinthians:
Love is patient and kind;
love is not jealous or boastful;
It is not arrogant or rude.
Love does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful;
It does not rejoice at wrong, but rejoices in the right.
Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
Love never fails.
Continue with Psalm 90.
Psalm
Response: Fill us with your love, O Lord, and we will sing for joy!
Teach us to number our days aright,
that we may gain wisdom of heart.
Return, O LORD! How long? Have pity on your servants!
R. Fill us with your love, O Lord, and we will sing for joy!
Fill us at daybreak with your kindness,
that we may shout for joy and gladness all our days. Make us glad, for the days when you afflicted us, for the years when we saw evil.
R. Fill us with your love, O Lord, and we will sing for joy!
Let your work be seen by your servants
and your glory by their children;
and may the gracious care of the LORD our God be ours;
prosper the work of our hands for us! Prosper the work of our hands!
R. Fill us with your love, O Lord, and we will sing for joy!
Conclude with an Our Father
Used with permission. All rights reserved. Christ in Our Neighborhood is a Scripture program designed by Bishop John P. Dolan of the Diocese of Phoenix.