13 October 2024 – 28th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year B) | First Holy Communion Mass

by Fr Joachim Robert

So I look to the children and see their faces beaming with joy. And I am sure all of them, including you who are excited to gather with them too. To have this opportunity to receive Jesus for the first time in the Eucharist.

And today’s Gospel, dear friends, makes us reflect and makes us take this moment to do a check within ourselves, to see where are we. For the past week preparing for today, the story of this rich young man who goes towards Jesus who was setting out on a journey. This man ran up to Jesus, knelt before Him and put this question to him:
Good master, what must I do to inherit eternal life?

And like the rich young man, dear friends, all of us have to ask this question. If we want to inherit eternal life, if we want to follow Jesus, then we need to make a decision. 

But as we look at that question, and as we look at the rich young man, we need to ask the motivation behind him. You and I, whenever we ask this question, are we focused on this God who draws us to Himself or are we focused on what we want to do and the efforts that we take in order to reach that final destination?

And eternal life, dear friends, is not a destination. Eternal life is a process that we take or a journey that we take together with Jesus, here and now. And whatever that we do, here and now, if our motivation is motivated by the love for God who draws us to Himself, then every action, every decisions, every choices that we make must reflect that eternal destination that we want to be in.

And for that rich young man, we see that he wants to reach heaven. He wants to reach eternal life but in his own terms, in his own way of understanding.

So let us ask ourselves how are we so similar to the rich young man in the Gospel today. And as we look at him, I can resonate, I can put myself in his position because very, very often, I am like the rich young man who wants to seek Jesus, who wants to follow Jesus but according to my terms and according to what I feel that I should do. But this week, reflecting on this man made me realise a few things which perhaps I would like to share today.

The first thing is because that rich young man taught me this three lessons.

The first thing is that he was a man who was seeking God. A man who with sincerity of heart wanting to know what is God’s will and God’s plan in his life. And as he seeks God and he noticed Jesus passing by, he quickly ran up to him and asked Him this question. He ran up to Jesus, knelt before Him and put this question before Him:
Good master, what must I do to inherit eternal life?

And here, dear friends, when he was looking for Jesus, when he wanted answers for his question, he was a man who wanted to attain the fullness of life that Jesus has to offer.

And secondly, he was a man who knew where to look for answers. Rather than asking so many people, he went directly at Jesus and asked Him this question. Yes, he had followed the Commandments of God, he had kept the Commandments but he was still restless. He was still unfulfilled because something in him was missing.

And thirdly, he was a man who was honest. Honest to himself and honest to Jesus because he was seeking with all sincerity. But when Jesus told him that there is one thing that you lack, that you have to rid away your treasures to attain eternal life, he was conscious that he was not able to do it and he moved away sadly.

Aren’t you and I, dear friends, like the rich young man? We follow the Commandments of the law, we go to our Sacraments of Reconciliation, we go and do our part in what is necessary to lead a good life, we read the scriptures (sometimes), but when we are confronted with situations of life which we need to make a decision, we sometimes turn away sad because the call of Jesus is too demanding. The call of Jesus is too difficult.

But Jesus as well has something to teach us today as well. When the rich young man came to see Jesus, Jesus probed him and led him to think more and to question his decisions and his choices. And Jesus let him.

And the second thing that Jesus did when he came to Him was Jesus looked at this man and He loved him. And after loving Him, He was also patient to let him go. Because at that point, at that moment, that rich young man was not able to make that decision to follow Jesus that radically. Whether he came back after coming to his senses, did he follow Jesus? I don’t know.

But aren’t we like the rich young man? We perhaps know what are the things to do. We know what are the options that we need to take but we are not confident to move into the unknown because it is too frightening or perhaps we are too fearful.

But Jesus invites us. Jesus invites us with His patience, with His love and the way that He draws us into Himself, to find new life in Him, to find that eternal life that He promises us. And are we willing to take that step forward with Him?

Because when the rich young man was with Jesus, when he went away sad, the Second Reading today, dear friends, comes to highlight to us that the word of God is something alive and active. It cuts like any double-edged sword but more finely.

That rich young man went away sad because the word of God, Jesus’ question, cut him in the heart to check or to make him understand the deeper realities of life.

So let us pray, dear friends, that together with the rich young man, that we may find that eternal life that Jesus offers us.

And as we look at the young people today, and before today’s celebration, they prepared themselves yesterday through confessions. They prepared themselves for confessions. And there I asked them one question:
When they look at themselves in the mirror, whom do they see?

And many of them, if I ask you the same question: Who do you see in the mirror?, a reflection of your own self.

And when they were asked that question, many of them also said that they see themself in the mirror. And as they see themself in the mirror, and they see the reflection of themself, then I told them that the scriptures becomes alive because they are made in God’s image and God’s likeness. And they are reflections of God’s goodness in their life.

When I asked them, many of them when I asked them do they have goodness in them, some confidently said ‘Yes’, some who were not sure, perhaps there is nothing good in me. Some also said they are not sure.

But I think, dear friends, as we look at them, they too can teach us that the way we view ourself, the way we see ourself before God, like the rich young man, makes us come to a deeper realisation. If we trust the scriptures, it is true that we are made in God’s image and God’s likeness and God’s goodness reside in us. Because God is present in us, then our whole orientation of life, our whole way we live our life changes and moves us to become better people, become people who are in love with Jesus in the way we make our choices.

So that is the lesson that they taught me yesterday that we must have that goodness of God in our lives, in the way we reach out to one another.

And the recipe to allow God’s goodness to triumph in our life is expressed in the First Reading from the book of Wisdom. And to understand the wisdom of God, we must allow ourself to surrender to what God is inviting us into. And when we surrender with so much of joy that they had, so much of excitement, so much of enthusiasm, of wanting to receive Jesus today, that too speaks about the wisdom to entrust ourself into God’s hands and into God’s love.

At this Mass, let us pray for them and for us as we too allow the Eucharist to nourish us, mould us and shape us, that our hearts may be transformed more and more into God’s image and God’s likeness.

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