Open and Honest Converation with Saints

Homily for Sunday, October 13, 2024
The Twenty-First Sunday After Pentecost
Mark 10:17-31

The Gospel lesson we just heard is difficult – really difficult. My first instinct upon hearing today’s passage is to look for a way out,to find some way to mitigate what Jesus said, like to maybe make Jesus’ words metaphorical, or perhaps to find what he really meant to say when what he said was:  “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.”  But in the Greek “camel” means“camel,” and “the eye of a needle” means “the eye of a needle.”  My sense is Jesus meant to say exactly what he said.

I want to get back to today’s difficult Gospel passage, but first, I want to turn to the acclaimed author of books for young adults, and the former National Ambassador for Young People’s Literature, and who also is on faculty at Lesley University over in Cambridge,Jason Reynolds.  Reynolds has been described as a “national treasure,” who writes “masterpieces that… are on par with the level of genius we admire in Michelangelo or Mozart” [Amanda Jones, NY Times, Aug 25, 2024].  In Reynold’s book The Long Way Down (written in verse), fifteen-year-old William Holloman one morning takes his brother’s pistol and sets out to murder his brother’s murderer.  Here is from the opening of The Long Way Down:

A cannon.  A strap.

A piece.  A biscuit.

A burner.  A heater.

A chopper.  A gat.

A hammer

A tool

for RULE

Or, you can call it a gun.  That’s what fifteen-year-old Will has shoved in the back waistband of his jeans.  See, his brother Shawn was just murdered.  And Will knows the rules.  No crying. No snitching.  Revenge.  That’s where Will’s now heading, with that gun shoved into the waistband of his jeans, the gun that was his brother’s gun.  He gets on the elevator, seventh floor, stoked.  He knows who he’s after.  Or does he?

The book goes on to describe how, as the elevator stops at each floor, a different ghost from Will’s past gets on.  On the sixth floor, for example, on comes Buck.  Buck is the one who gave Shawn the gun before Will took the gun.  Buck tells Will to check that the gun is even loaded.  Which is how Will discovered one bullet missing, and the only person who could have fired Shawn’s gun is Shawn.  Will didn’t know Shawn had ever used the gun. As Will is processing this, the elevator stops at the fifth floor, and on comes a girl whom Will doesn’t know, but who knows Will.  When they were eight, stray bullets had cut through their playground, and she was struck and killed.  She wants to know what happens if Will misses.  And so on and so forth…  Each of the ghosts that gets on the elevator speaks with Will, causing Will to question what he is about to do.

The book ends inconclusively with Will getting off the elevator; we don’t know what Will is going to do.

Reynolds’ conceit for the story – different ghosts from Will’s past conversing with Will about his intended course of action – [Reynold’s conceit for the story] mirrors one of the spiritual exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola.  Writing in the first half of the 16^thcentury, Ignatius suggested that, if we would better discern which course of action to take, we could imagine ourselves conversing with the saints and hearing what they  might urge us to do.  If we were trying to discern, say, whether or not to go to graduate school , we could imagine having a conversation with, for example, the Apostle Paul and imagine what Paul might suggest we do .  If we were trying to discern whether or not to get married, we could imagine having a conversation with  Mary the mother of Jesus and imagine what Mary might have to say.  Or if we were trying to decide whether or not we wanted to join a particular parish, we could imagine having a conversation with, say, the apostles James and John, or maybe with St.Thomas – or maybe all three together – and imagine what they might urge us to do.  The key is to imagine an honest and open conversation with one who is a saint. Tell the saint (or saints) everything – how we feel, our fears, our misgivings, our hopes; don’t hold back. And then be open to hear what the saints might have to say in return.

When in the early 4^thcentury, St. Anthony the Great heard Jesus’ words in today’s Gospel to “Go,sell what you own, give the money to the poor, and… then come, follow me,” he did just that and went to live in the Egyptian desert.  For me, I live with having fallen short of Jesus’ command; and – what is more – I am wealthy.  I struggle and squirm when I hear Jesus say that, “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than it is for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.”  These words in today’s Gospel are difficult.  

But there is something we can do…  Jesus might ask us to give everything, but the Episcopal Church’s standard for giving is only 10% of our income.  Maybe during this stewardship season – and since in a month’s time we will be asked to make a pledge of financial support to God and God’s work here at Trinity Parish – [maybe] in the coming days and weeks set aside time to try Ignatius’ exercise.  Pick a saint, or several saints – or maybe,since All Saints’ Day is coming soon in a few weeks’ time – maybe imagine the entire company of saints conversing with you as you try to discern what percentage of your income you might give to God and God’s work.  Be open and honest with them – “Oh, my God,giving ten percent?  That’s a lot of money.  Think of what I could do with that money.”  Or, “It makes me sick to think of giving that kind of money.”  Or,“I think I can get away with just two percent.” Whatever we might say, the important thing is to be open and honest; the saints can work with our honesty.  And then be open to hear what the saints might have to say.

Unlike Will’s question, our question of how much to give to God and God’s work is not a matter of physical life or death.  But it is a life and death matter in other ways, for our giving is a matter of joy – and of peace,and of satisfaction, and of purpose and of meaning and of living without fear.  For Jesus did also say in today’s Gospel lesson that, “There is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields, for my sake and for the sake of the good news, who will not receive a hundredfold now in this age… and in the age to come eternal life.”  “We can’t out-give God,” I’ve heard it said;and in my experience, when we give generously to God, God gives far, far more in return.  But don’t take it from me.  Go, and have those conversations with the saints.  Hear what they might have to say.  And ask God for the grace to have the courage to then go and do it.

‍