O T XXVIII [B] WIS. 7:7-11; HEB 4:12-13; MK 10: 17-30

African hunters have a clever way of trapping monkeys. They slice a coconut in two, hollow it out, and in one half of the shell cut a hole just big enough for a monkey's hand to pass through. Then they place an orange in the other coconut half before fastening together the two halves of the coconut shell. Finally, they secure the coconut to a tree with a rope, retreat into the bush, and wait. Sooner or later, an unsuspecting monkey swings by, smells the delicious orange, and discovers its location inside the coconut. The monkey then slips its hand through the small hole, grasps the orange, and tries to pull it through the hole. Of course, the orange won't come out; it's too big for the hole. To no avail the persistent monkey continues to pull and pull, never realizing the danger it is in. While the monkey struggles with the orange, the hunters approach and capture the monkey by throwing a net over it. As long as the monkey keeps its fist wrapped around the orange, the monkey is trapped. The only way the monkey could save its life is to let go of the orange and flee.

This hunting system works because it hardly occurs to the monkey that it cannot have both the orange and its freedom. The rich young man in today's gospel probably was like this monkey. He wanted eternal life, but he did not want to share his property with the poor.

If you are a lover of animals and you see the monkey struggling to get the orange while the hunters are closing up on it, what would you do? You would probably shout to the monkey to abandon the stupid orange and run for dear life. This is exactly what Jesus does to the rich young man. He sees the man in danger of losing his bid on eternal life on account of his attachment to wealth. So he calls on him to give up his wealth and save his life.

Jesus told the young man that, if he wanted to be perfect,

keeping the commandments was not enough. We do not possess anything in our life that we refuse to surrender to the Lord.  We cannot just surrender only one aspect of our life and take the other half for ourselves. The first commandment tells that we need to honor God with all our being. Some Christians think that by coming to Church on Sunday really fulfills all what they owe to God. What I do outside the Church does not really need to match up with what I believe.

You cannot be a true Catholic and vote for a candidate who is pro-abortion. With hardly three weeks remaining for the election to take place, the Bishops urge the Catholics to be responsible voters. Before I go any further, let me tell you one thing. I don’t have affiliation to any political party. I don’t have a voting right, I have only permanent residency, not a citizenship here. But I am obligated to teach you what the official church’s position when you go to vote in November. There is one very important question to ask when you go to vote for a candidate.

 “The question to ask is this: Are any of the candidates of either party, or independents, standing for something that is intrinsically evil, evil no matter what the circumstances? If that’s the case, a Catholic, regardless of his party affiliation, shouldn’t be voting for such a person.”  – Archbishop William Lori, Diocese of Baltimore.

"Is it ever licit for a Catholic to vote for a pro-abortion candidate. Is it ever valid?"

"No. You can never vote for someone who favors absolutely the right to choice of a woman to destroy a human life in her womb. Where you don't have any candidate who is proposing to eliminate all abortion [voters may] choose the candidate who will most limit this grave evil in our country. But you could never justify voting for a candidate who not only does not want to limit abortion but believes that it should be available to everyone." – Cardinal Raymond Burke

“I certainly can’t vote for somebody who’s either pro-choice or pro-abortion. Jesus tells us very clearly that if we don’t help the poor, we’re going to go to hell. But Jesus didn’t say the government has to take care of them, or that we have to pay taxes to take care of them. Those are prudential judgments. You can’t say that somebody’s not Christian because they want to limit taxation. To say that it’s somehow intrinsically evil like abortion doesn’t make any sense at all.” – Archbishop Charles Chaput, Diocese of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

“One might argue for different methods to address the needs of the poor, to feed the hungry and to solve the challenges of immigration, but these are prudential judgments not intrinsic evils… You need to think and pray very carefully about your vote, because a vote for a candidate who promotes actions or behaviors that are intrinsically evil and gravely sinful makes you morally complicit and places the eternal salvation of your own soul in serious jeopardy.” – Bishop Thomas Paprocki, Diocese of Springfield, Illinois  

“Other pieces of legislation touch on the building of a good and just society and may be open to prudential judgment, … [but] ’Forming Consciences’ tells us that in the political debate today there is no other issue that rises to this level of moral certitude: Abortion is always wrong. To support political platforms that protect so-called ‘abortion rights’ is to participate in the inexorable conclusion: many, many innocent unborn children will be killed. Sometimes a single issue will be so important it overrides a whole range of lesser issues.” – Cardinal Donald Wuerl, Archbishop of Washington, D.C.

“In all of Church teaching, the Life Issues, particularly the protection of unborn children against the crime of abortion, has to be our greatest priority. This is an ongoing slaughter of 4,000 children every single day for the last 40 years. If we support and promote persons who have pledged to extend it and intensify the slaughter, then we bear great responsibility with them.” – Bishop Robert Finn, Diocese of Kansas City, Kansas

“A committed and convinced Catholic is always pro-life on the issue of abortion and euthanasia, and that includes in the voting booth.” – Archbishop Dennis Schnurr, Diocese of Cincinnati, Ohio 

Along with defending unborn life, preserving the dignity of traditional marriage is of central importance and must never be undermined because marriage is a cornerstone of any stable society. Any attempts to redefine marriage as something other than between a man and a woman, should be vigorously opposed by a Catholic as contrary to reason, the natural law, and the divinely revealed truths of the Bible. Bishop Felipe J. Estévez, Diocese of St. Augustine, FL

Jesus says we cannot serve God and mammon at the same time. You cannot follow two contradicting values in your life. We are called to give absolute and unconditional priority to God and his word.

The first reading advises us to use the God given virtue of prudence and to seek true wisdom in preference to vanishing realities like riches, or political and social influence.  Solomon chose Wisdom before everything else.  But when he received Wisdom, he received everything else along with her. Since Jesus is Wisdom Incarnate, when we put following Jesus ahead of everything else we receive everything else along with Jesus. Jesus said to the rich young man, you are lacking one thing. Let’s examine and find out what we are lacking in our attempt to be true follower of Jesus.