The ultra-rich people around the world are as diverse as the much poorer ones. Yet there seems to be one aspect that is quite common among the rich ones: many of them have invested in companies searching to combat death, or illnesses leading to death, or – at least – to prolong human life. That makes sense when you have amassed so much money that life seems too short to spend it all. Interestingly enough and maybe a bit surprisingly, many of those multibillionaires support and fund philanthropic or charitable causes. This all looks like a modern, secular version of the man who approached Jesus in today’s gospel reading.
On the face of it, the stumbling block for the man is his wealth. Such an impression can be reinforced by Jesus’ comment after the man left: ‘How hard it is for those who have riches to enter the kingdom of God!’ If that’s the case, can we define the amount of amassed wealth that is irreconcilable with eternal life? Will most of us go straight to heaven because we are not multimillionaires? But today’s gospel deals with much more than financial or material wealth.
There was a common perception that earthly prosperity was a result of God’s blessing. We can find traces of such thinking sprinkled across the Old Testament. The reaction of Jesus’ disciples reflected such thinking: ‘they were astounded by these words […] In that case – they said to one another – who can be saved?’ Then there was another common belief that eternal life was earned by doing things, hence the rich man’s question: ‘what must I do to inherit eternal life?’ Jesus’ initial answer seemed to confirm such thinking as correct: ‘You know the commandments: You must not kill; You must not commit adultery; You must not steal; You must not bring false witness; You must not defraud; Honour your father and mother.’ When the man claimed ‘I have kept all these from my earliest days’ it seemed to earn him Jesus’ appreciation. However, there’s an interesting phrase: ‘Jesus looked steadily at him.’ It’s a kind of gaze that recalls today’s second reading: ‘The word of God is something alive and active: it cuts like any double-edged sword but more finely: it can slip through the place where the soul is divided from the spirit, or joints from the marrow; it can judge the secret emotions and thoughts. No created thing can hide from him; everything is uncovered and open to the eyes of the one to whom we must give account of ourselves.’ The incarnate word of God, Jesus, looked deep inside the man and saw that ‘there is one thing you lack.’ I think the pun was intended; the man rich in material and spiritual goods was yet short of one thing. What was that one thing he lacked?
I’ve never been a wealthy person, so I don’t have first-hand experience of what it means to be one. However, I play story-driven video games. You can think about them as interactive films where choices made by a player affect the outcome. An essential part of the game is managing available resources; at the initial stages they are scarce, so the player must be cautious and prudent. As the game progresses, the virtual wealth quickly grows to the point where the player can afford anything. That makes him brash, cocky and reckless. Becoming virtually rich in such games gave me an insight into how having plenty can be corrupting in many ways. It can make a person full of himself, arrogant, reckless and so on… It doesn’t concern material or financial wealth only. There’s no shortage of those who see themselves as superior to others on moral or societal grounds or perceived status and so on… This kind of attitude is reflected in the infamous phrase ‘Do you know who I am?’
The boastful self-reliance of those rich in material or spiritual wealth is incompatible with the kingdom of God. Jesus wants us to rely on Him only, to trust Him in all circumstances. St Paul described it in the letter to the Philippians: ‘I have learned to be content with whatever I have. I know what it is to have little, and I know what it is to have plenty. In any and all circumstances I have learned the secret of being well-fed and of going hungry, of having plenty and of being in need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me.’ (4:11-13) The one thing the rich man in today’s gospel lacked was freedom. He was a hostage to his wealth. We can be hostage to our good fortune, health, status and so on. The wisdom of life as presented in today’s first reading is to find the right balance in life, so we possess things but are not possessed by them. Let me finish with an ancient prayer that you can make your own: ‘Two things I ask of you; do not deny them to me before I die: Remove far from me falsehood and lying; give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with the food that I need, or I shall be full, and deny you, and say, “Who is the Lord?” or I shall be poor, and steal, and profane the name of my God.’ (Proverbs 30:7-9)
Image by Nawal Escape from Pixabay