Fr. Namby Pamby, in his homily for this morning's Mass had the following to say about the Gospel:
"Jesus says to the rich young man this morning, 'If you would be perfect, go, sell what you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven.' (Matt 19:21) By this we can see that social justice is the way to heaven. It is the path laid out for us by our Lord to follow."
And he goes on and on with this drivel. Apparently, Nam, as he likes to be called by his parishioners (he did away with title Father because he felt it was too patriarchal), didn't read the entire Gospel. If he had been paying attention he would have noticed a few things.
First of all, Jesus said to the young man, "If you would enter life, keep the commandments." He didn't tell the young man to go alleviate injustice. Now I will admit that works of social justice are a part of the commandments that Jesus is speaking about when He says, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." But social justice isn't the whole story. Now at this point Fr. Pamby (notice the use of his title in order to annoy him) would probably want to argue, "But Jesus told him to go and sell all he owned and give it to the poor. That means social justice is the main focus of this lesson." It is at this point I must tell my misguided colleague that he is wrong.
If we look at Matt 19:22 we are told, "When the young man heard (what Jesus said) he went away sorrowful; for he had great possessions." Jesus could see into this young man's soul and He knew that the young man put too much trust in his wealth. If this isn't true then why didn't he happily go along with what Christ said? He was sorrowful because his possessions meant more to him than his own soul. Jesus told him to get rid of everything because if the young man, or in fact any man, wants Christ then there is room for nothing else. We must be willing to get rid of anything that keeps us from Christ if we want to inherit eternal life. Christ gave up everything for us and we must be willing to do the same for Him.
So you see, this isn't a lesson in social justice. It is a lesson about the salvation of a soul and not just that of the rich young man but yours, mine and everyone else that has ever cared about something else more than they care about God.
(All characters appearing in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.)
"Jesus says to the rich young man this morning, 'If you would be perfect, go, sell what you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven.' (Matt 19:21) By this we can see that social justice is the way to heaven. It is the path laid out for us by our Lord to follow."
And he goes on and on with this drivel. Apparently, Nam, as he likes to be called by his parishioners (he did away with title Father because he felt it was too patriarchal), didn't read the entire Gospel. If he had been paying attention he would have noticed a few things.
First of all, Jesus said to the young man, "If you would enter life, keep the commandments." He didn't tell the young man to go alleviate injustice. Now I will admit that works of social justice are a part of the commandments that Jesus is speaking about when He says, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." But social justice isn't the whole story. Now at this point Fr. Pamby (notice the use of his title in order to annoy him) would probably want to argue, "But Jesus told him to go and sell all he owned and give it to the poor. That means social justice is the main focus of this lesson." It is at this point I must tell my misguided colleague that he is wrong.
If we look at Matt 19:22 we are told, "When the young man heard (what Jesus said) he went away sorrowful; for he had great possessions." Jesus could see into this young man's soul and He knew that the young man put too much trust in his wealth. If this isn't true then why didn't he happily go along with what Christ said? He was sorrowful because his possessions meant more to him than his own soul. Jesus told him to get rid of everything because if the young man, or in fact any man, wants Christ then there is room for nothing else. We must be willing to get rid of anything that keeps us from Christ if we want to inherit eternal life. Christ gave up everything for us and we must be willing to do the same for Him.
So you see, this isn't a lesson in social justice. It is a lesson about the salvation of a soul and not just that of the rich young man but yours, mine and everyone else that has ever cared about something else more than they care about God.
(All characters appearing in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.)
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