“There was once a wise woman travelling in the mountains who found a precious stone in a stream. The next day she met another traveller who was hungry, and she opened her bag to share her food. The hungry traveller saw the precious stone and asked if she might give it to him. She did so without hesitation. The traveller left, rejoicing in his good fortune. He knew the stone was worth enough to give him security for a lifetime, but a few days later he came back to return the stone to the woman who had given it to him. ‘I’ve been thinking,” he said, “I know how valuable the stone is, but I’m giving it back in the hope that you can give me something much more precious. I want you to give me what you have within you that enabled you to give me the stone without any hesitation.’
In today’s Gospel reading, we have a rich young man who asks Jesus how to gain eternal life. We know that Jesus told him to obey the laws and commandments. Jesus, knowing that the man was good, asked him to go one step further, to sell all his possessions and give it to the poor and to follow him. And we know that the rich young man walked away feeling sad. The rich young man was so attached to his wealth that he could not see that in order to gain eternal life, he had to sacrifice what is not heavenly. Therefore, his sin was not walking away from eternal life but the sin of attachment.
The emphasis of his whole life and conduct was also selfish in the sense that he only looked at himself and tried to make himself perfect. Because of this, he could not see beyond his own self. In the days of Jesus and the Old Testament, wealth and riches was seen as a sign of blessings and favour from God. Those who were poor were considered abandoned by God, as we can read from the Book of Job.
In today’s materialistic and individualistic world, where money speaks and the “I, me and myself” mentality prevails, we should all the more realise that attachments to things that are earthly can and will draw us away from God. A person who is motivated by money will work and work and do everything he can to get what he desires. In doing this, he neglects his soul and he will no longer feel the need for God. A person who is rich and powerful will never feel the need for God in his life.
There is nothing wrong with being wealthy. There is also nothing wrong with us working to get money. Whatever that is said, money is still an important part of our daily lives. Without money we won’t be able to survive. But to what extent do we go to get money? That is the question we need to ask ourselves. Money begets money and the more we have, the more we crave for it. No matter how much money we have, it’ll never be enough. And when that happens, the money that we have will become our God.
The story of the wise woman I told at the beginning gives us a glimpse of how we can gain eternal life. The woman readily gave away the precious and expensive stone. For most of us, even for me, giving away such a precious stone would definitely be difficult. To someone who is worldly, giving away that stone is a sign of madness. But the woman has something else that is more precious than anything that is material. She was wise and therefore filled with wisdom.
She had something that is esteemed more than “scepters and thrones…compared with her, all gold is a pinch of sand, and beside her silver ranks as mud”. She is more valuable than health, beauty and even the light because “in her company all good things came to me…riches not to be numbered”. For what can be valued more than what brings me love, security, freedom and happiness? And this is what the first reading tells us today.
Wisdom guides us towards God, the Church and Sacraments that justify us and bless us with the gift of salvation. Without wisdom, we are spiritually blind. In spiritual blindness, we become as lost sheep who walk aimlessly, waiting for the wolves to devour them.
So then, the choice is laid before us; wealth or eternal life. Jesus tells us not to store things which will eventually rot way but to store treasures in heaven where neither thief nor disaster can touch them. The choice of eternal life will be up to us; to be like the rich young man or to be like the wise woman. Only we can make that choice. The question is, who will we choose to be?
