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Today’s Gospel from Mark describe a man asking what must I do to inherit eternal life? I want to draw your attention to the question. I am struck by the fact that the man is focused solely on his own needs. While there is nothing wrong with that the question it does say much about his level of faith development. It is very self-focused. Jesus asks the expected questions, around how he has lived his faith in the past. Jesus realizes that his possessions have impacted the man’s ability to spiritually grow.

It is clear that Jesus encourages his followers to prioritize spiritual wealth over material possessions. The issue of impact of how compatible is spirituality and being wealthy has been around since the beginning of Christianity. As a priest I have often heard the expression that Christians need to solidarity with the poor. I never felt comfortable with that for several reasons.

When I was attending a conference, the presenter suggested that rather than attempting solidarity we should be using our wealth to help lift the poor out of poverty. This makes so much more sense to me.

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Many Christian denominations have interpreted this Scripture passage differently, but I want to draw your attention to the comment Jesus made, and I quote: “What God has joined together, no human being must separate.” This is a very important line. We assume that when someone has a wedding in a Church witnessed before a priest or minister that they are married.

I’ve made it clear to couples that they could be married in a Basilica, their officiant could be a bishop but if their consent is not there they are not married before God. Often people have to grow into their ability to give their consent to their marriage.

Today’s Gospel speaks about family issues and values. Families play an important part in our spiritual and faith development. Jesus teaches us that marriage is more than just a contract between a couple but a blessed union, something much bigger than ourselves.

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Being passionate about one’s faith is not being fanatical. Being passionate about one’s faith is being inspired, actively seeking deeper understanding and being committed to living the values in our faith life. The problem is that anyone’s faith can become complacent, left unchallenged our faith may ultimately becomes stale. In Matthew 5:13 Jesus states, “You are the salt of the earth; but if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot”.
Passion in our faith requires trust in God. I wonder if people worry that if they become more spiritual or faith-based God will ask them to do something they do not want to do. There may be some truth to that. If we open our eyes more, we may see more injustices in the world, if we open our ears to listen, we might hear the harmful and disrespectful messages which confront us or we may become more attuned to the cries of the poor.