Homily for the 28th Sunday in Ordinary Time

By Father James Peterson

There once was a man who was young and quite rich,
Whose plans would go off without even a hitch.
He prayed every day and loved the Lord,
He kept the Commandments and rarely was bored.
 
He had no real problems, no difficulties to tell,
All in all things for him were remarkably well.
And yet he sensed within him a call to be great,
An interior nagging that he felt was his fate.
 
He spoke with wise teachers and consulted the crowd,
He thought in his mind and he pondered aloud.
To Jesus of Nazareth he named him, “Good teacher,”
To the miracle worker and incredible preacher.
 
He asked what to do to gain life without end,
To the savior of sinners, to their merciful Friend.
Christ looked at the young man with a look of pure love,
And then told him his path to reach heaven above.
 
By selling what he had and giving to the poor,
Then following Jesus and true life he’d secure.
That young man heard those words and was considerably sad,
for the words which he heard had struck him as bad.
 
He had worked oh so hard to gain fortune and fame,
To have earned all his goods and his credible name.
With a great deal to ponder he walked slowly away,
With deep thoughts of his life on that memorable day.
 
We don’t know for sure if the young man changed his mind
And returned to the Lord with a courage he’d find.
But his meeting with Jesus has a lesson for us all
from the greatest of great to the smallest of small.
 
God calls us by name and loves us a lot,
He wants us to be happy and have more than we’ve got.
To have treasure in heaven and eternal delight.
In the realm of His Mercy and the warmth of His Light.
 
Are we willing to let the message of God,
To enter our hearts and transform what is odd?
To clear out the sin and anew make us pure
To strengthen our health to press on and endure.
 
All things for God are possible, you know,
To raise up dead faith and to help us to grow.
To be men and women and children of hope   
To bolster our spirits when we're at the end of our rope.
 
May our Eucharistic Lord fill us kindly today
With peace and persistence on our pilgriming way.
Til we experience the Grace of Christ once again,
In the Kingdom of Heaven where we'll all say, “Amen.”