Greater Than Scepter And Throne

Rev. Marcel Divine Emeka Okwara, CSsR

Homily for the Twenty-Eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B

St. Alphonsus Catholic Church, Brooklyn Center, MN

Sunday, October 10, 2021

Our first reading taken from the Book of Wisdom 7:7-11 and the Gospel Mark 10:17-30 are meant to be read in tandem. They are meant to be read together, for they articulate an important principle called spiritual physics. If you are interested in spiritual life, I strongly suggest you attend to these readings. Read them, meditate upon them, and pray with them. In the first reading, Solomon said, “I pleaded and the spirit of wisdom came to me. I preferred her to scepter and throne, and deemed riches nothing in comparison with her.” No king in Israel had wealth, riches and power more than Solomon. In the Bible, he is presented as the greatest of the kings of Israel. He had every worldly goods you can ever imagined. Yet, when he prayed and wisdom came to him, he preferred her more important and greater than scepter and throne. He considered wisdom more vital, more rewarding, and far greater than all the power he had. 

But what’s Solomon talking about when he says wisdom? By wisdom he just doesn’t mean scientific knowledge, although it is part of it. Wisdom in the Bible means seeing life from the perspective of God. It means intimacy with God that enables us to see the world from the perspective of God and then live our life accordingly. That’s what Solomon considered as the highest value and greater than any goods in the world. 

The great French Catholic philosopher, Blaise Paschal made a distinction between the goods of the body, the goods of the mind, and the goods of the heart. The goods of the body are those things that wealth can buy— all the pleasures of the world, nice place to live, nice car to drive, nice clothes to wear and a good and healthy food to eat. They are good in themselves, but we are not meant to be stuck at that level. We must move towards the goods of the mind that transcend any of the goods of the body. When you fall in love with philosophy, metaphysics, mathematics, and higher sciences, they bring you to a more refined world. But Paschal said that beyond all those are the goods of the heart. The goods of the heart are those values, those things associated with God. That’s the wisdom Solomon is talking about. The moment Solomon was brought into this world of value that is associated with God, he realized that everything else, all the power, and even the goods of the mind, are nothing compared to the highest good— wisdom. 

Why is wisdom so important? Why is she so indispensable? When you have wisdom, when you see things from God’s vantage point, you will know what to do with the wealth and worldly power that you have. Power or wealth should come together with wisdom. They make sense together. It should not be a matter of either or. It is only when you move into the realm of wisdom that you will know what to do with the power entrusted to you and with the goods of the world. 

With this in mind, we now come to the Gospel, to the narrative of the wealthy young man. He has all the goods of the world. He has the goods of the body and the goods of the mind. The Gospel says he runs to Jesus, kneels before him and asks, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” This young man, though has all the goods of the world, he implicitly knows they are not enough. If not, why would he bother an itinerant preacher simply to ask him about eternal life? He must have known that the goods of the world, no matter how great they are, are not eternal. They don’t satisfy the deepest longing of the heart. How does Jesus respond to his question? He takes him to the commandments. The first step to wisdom, to eternal life is to eliminate from our life sins that stand in the way, that prevent us from attaining the higher level. If wisdom is intimacy with God, then we have to get rid of those violations of love, for God is nothing but love. That means we can’t kill. We can’t defraud. We can’t steal. We can’t commit adultery or bear false witness or dishonor our parents. These are fundamental violations of love. So, getting rid of those sins is the first fundamental step. The rich young man replies Jesus, “All these I have observed from my youth.” He has covered the basis; he has eliminated the fundamental violations of love. There is a sign he is spiritually serious. Reading his heart, the Lord senses he is being honest and Jesus says, “You are lacking in one thing. Go, sell what you have. Give it to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come and follow me.” This is the pivotal moment of this story. The young man is a good man. He has good instinct. He is not stuck at the level of the goods of the body. He is asking of eternal life. He has done a lot of the basis, and Jesus knows it. And Jesus is now saying to him, if you are ready to obtain the high spiritual life, for real wisdom, for real communion with God, sell what you have, give it to the poor, and come after me. Now is the time for a radical choice, for a radical movement. 

What is Jesus sensing in this young rich man? Though his instincts are right, Jesus knows he is still too drawn, too attached to the goods of the world. He still has the tendency to get stuck in the goods of the world— power, pleasure, and riches. So, Jesus invites him to set those things aside and follow him to the height. Unfortunately, one of the saddest lines in the whole Bible is found in the response of the young man to the invitation of Jesus. It is so rare in the Gospel that Jesus calls someone and the person doesn’t respond. When Jesus called Matthew, Matthew got up and followed him. When he called the sons of Zebedee, James and John to follow him, they left everything including their father and followed him. When Peter said to Jesus, “Depart from me for I am a sinful man,” Jesus objected and invited him to become a fisher of men. As for the young rich man, when he heard Jesus say, “come, and follow me,” “his face fell, and he went away sad, for he had many possessions.” The rich man has the goods of the body, but he’s being drawn upward. He is actually looking for it. That’s why he’s keeping the commandments. That’s what brought him to Jesus. He is seeking eternal life from Jesus. But at a decisive moment, he balks. He’s like the ancient Israelites. Having escaped from Egypt, they began to long for the fleshpots of Egypt. They began to complain and lament how they ate beef-stew, and longed for the old life. At a decisive moment, the rich man is summoned by Jesus to the height, but he still finds himself drawn back to the place of safety and comfort. 

Shocked by the rich man’s refusal to follow him, Jesus says, “How hard it is for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God.” Now, don’t take this as a blanket condemnation of wealthy people, but it is an honest assessment of the dynamics of spiritual physics. It is hard breaking free of the allurement of the body in order to move to the next level of the mind. It is hard to break free from that level and get to the level of the heart, which is, total surrender to God. Solomon considers wisdom greater than scepter and throne, however, the first Book of Kings tells us that even Solomon himself, the wisest king of Israel, eventually falls back into the goods of the body and goods of the world. This is where most of us are. We come to Jesus. We want eternal life. We know the basis. We know the commandments of God have to be followed. But the voice of Jesus is urging us to detach from the goods of the world, come and follow him, and we will have treasure in heaven. What’s your attachment? What are you willing to let go and to follow Jesus?