The Gospel passage for this Sunday includes a very famous line: "It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for one who is rich to enter the kingdom of God" (Mark 10:25). Our initial thought might be to think of a sewing needle and try to imagine a camel squeezing through that tiny hole, which would clearly imply that a wealthy person has no chance of entering the Kingdom of God. But in the culture of Jesus, the phrase "eye of a needle" had another meaning too. The phrase was used to describe a small door that opened in one of the large panes of a grand gate, like a city gate. Such gates would be opened in the morning and would stay open for the day to allow for the daily coming and going of the inhabitants and visitors. Then in the evening, the gates would be closed and locked for the night.
But the small door called the eye of a needle could still be opened as needed during the night hours, which kept the city safer than having to open up the gates after sundown. The eye of a needle door was narrow and short so as to make it easier to defend in case of an attack. Since camels tend to be taller than grown adults and would typically be carrying packages too, getting a camel through the eye of a needle was quite a task. The packages would need to be removed and the camel would need to almost crawl in order to pass. While having a camel enter this way was not easy, it was not impossible either. Returning to the Gospel passage for this Sunday, according to the analogy Jesus uses, entering the Kingdom of Heaven would not be impossible for a rich person, but it would certainly be tough. Only with God's grace would it be possible.
In the Gospels, Jesus often makes strong statements about wealth and more than once exhorts the disciples to give away their possessions to help others, as he does in today's passage. Throughout history, Christians have had different approaches as to how to interpret and implement the words of Jesus on the subject of wealth. Many men and women who answered the call to religious life did in fact give away all their possessions to help the poor and then lived in complete poverty themselves.
Another perspective in Christianity has been to interpret the words of Jesus regarding wealth spiritually rather than literally. According to this interpretation, we can have possessions and can even have wealth, but we should not be attached to what we have. We should not let what we have control us. As the question goes, do you own your wealth or does your wealth own you?
On the one hand, we should be careful with the spiritual interpretation of giving up our possessions. We can too easily set aside the words of Jesus by claiming that we are detached from all that we own, when we are in fact still very much governed by our possessions. We should also note that we tend not to interpret other instructions of Jesus just spiritually. We do not say that we can do hateful things to our enemies as long as we are not attached to those acts or that we can commit sexual sins as long as we are internally removed from what we are doing.
On the other hand, we are also faced with the realities of our economic needs. Needless to say, the structure of contemporary American society requires that we save money in a variety of ways not only to make ends meet but to respond to emergencies and to build up funds for our retirement. But how do we reconcile our economic needs with the Gospel exhortation to give away our possessions to help others?
In The Acts of the Apostles, we see that the early Christians lived in common. Many of the wealthier members sold their possessions and gave the money to the apostles to distribute among the faithful to meet everyone's needs. But we also see in the story of Ananias and Sapphira (Acts 5:1-11) that no one is required to sell their possessions and give them away. The sin of Ananias and Sapphira is that they seek to gain glory by pretending to give everything to the community, without actually doing so. Thus, as the Christian community took shape in apostolic times, the precedent was that each person could decide whether to divest themselves of their wealth or not. In fact, as the Church grew and more and more communities of believers were established throughout the ancient world, the wealthy members were able to provide space for Mass and other forms of communal prayer in their homes before actual churches could be built, given the persecution of Christians by the Roman Empire.
Thus we can see that from the earliest times, some Christians gave up all their wealth to help others, but some did not. How can we reconcile these contrary approaches to possessions? The following principles can guide us. To begin, we should see all that we have as a gift from God. Our possessions are not truly ours. We hold them in trust for God as his stewards. As stewards, we should use our resources for responsible care for ourselves, for our families, and for others. We should avoid waste, excess, and ostentation. We should avoid financial decisions that hurt, exploit, or subjugate others. We should see the gift of possessions as a tool that God has given us to help build up his Kingdom both in small and far-reaching ways. We should not seek wealth for its own sake but as a means of helping us be better stewards of the life God has given us and more influential agents in ushering in God's reign in the world. As we do so, we will realize that we have an innate need and desire to give to others, which is rooted in the example of God's self-giving to us.
The rich man's challenge in the Gospel passage for this Sunday is that his perspective is limited. He is dedicated to following the law, as would be expected. At the same time, when Jesus tests his commitment, the rich man in question balks. While he follows the law, he does not have God fully in the center of his life. He must learn to reorient himself so that God is truly the organizing principle of his existence. Indeed, the only way to handle wealth in a life-giving way is to have God in the center of our heart.
As we contemplate the Gospel passage for today, we might be puzzled by the promise Jesus makes at the end that "there is no one who has given up house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands for my sake and for the sake of the gospel who will not receive a hundred times more now in this present age: houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and eternal life in the age to come" (Mark 10:29-31). What does Jesus mean by these words?
The context of the culture of Jesus is again important to bear in mind. In the society of Jesus, a person's identity was usually defined by the extended family that he or she belonged to. While the family provided a great deal of support, the family also required complete adherence to all of its beliefs and customs. Changing one's religion in that context was no small matter. In order to follow Christ, many of the early disciples had to leave their families, who would not accept their choice and might even try to punish them for embracing the new faith. Many Christians had to leave everything behind for Christ. As the Christian community grew, the faithful created their own new extended family to help each other survive in the world, as we see in The Acts of the Apostles. They would help each other financially and in many other ways, especially as the Church faced persecution from the Roman Empire.
Today's situation is somewhat different. But while our identity is not quite as deeply shaped by our families as in the ancient world, the choice to follow Christ can still result in rejection by our family members, our friends, our coworkers, our business partners, and many others in society. As we face such animosity, we must be like the early Christians, putting Christ above all else, accepting even ostracism for the sake of following our Lord, even as we pray and make sacrifices for those who persecute us. At the same time, we should also ask ourselves, to what extent do we help one another in the Christian community, as the early disciples helped each other? Are we acting like a supportive family toward one another in our parishes? If not, how can we do more?
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The readings for the Twenty-Eight Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle B are:
Wis 7:7-11
Ps 90:12-13, 14-15, 16-17
Heb 4:12-13
Mk 10:17-30 or 10:17-27
The full text can be found at the USCCB website.
Photo Credit: Eye of a Needle Door on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem (c) 2016 by Zoltan Abraham.