Wisdom, Hebrews, Needle’s eye

Notes on the readings for the 28^th Sunday of Ordinary Times (Cycle B)

Wis: 7:7-11

I was surprised to learn that the book of Wisdom dates only back to about 50 years before Christ.  I usually assume that the OT reading is centuries older.

 

I’ve long known that Wisdom is personified as feminine.  Sounds right to me!  About 25 years(?) ago, She Who Is, by Sr. Elizabeth Johnson, drove that point home.  Masculine or feminine, I don’t care.  Calling God Wisdom doesn’t do anything for me.

 

Hebrews: 4:12-13

I was surprised to learn that the book of Hebrews dates only to about 30 or 40 years after Christ’s death, but, of course, I shouldn’t have been.  It’s attributed to Paul, and I do have a decent idea of when Paul was writing.  Turns out that Paul probably didn’t write it — though I had assumed that he had.  I was also surprised to learn that it might not have originally been a letter; it may have been a sermon or some other kind of public address.

 

Mark 10:17-30

Well, now.  That’s a scary one, isn’t it?  I think it shocks us because we are rich.  (It would have also shocked Jesus’s listeners if they assumed that riches were a sign of God’s favor.)

Us, rich?  Yep.  Even the poorest of us have comforts that Alexander and Augustus and Kubla Khan and the tsars of Russia would have envied.  Running water.  Indoor plumbing.  Heating and air conditioning.  Medical care.  Television, for goodness sake!  So, what do we do with this reading?  We try to reason our way around it, naturally!

• ·       Surely this is simply Middle Eastern hyperbole, like saying take the 4x4x8 out of you own eye before worrying about the dust mote in mine
• ·       Maybe the “eye of the needle” is a reference to a narrow gate in the walled city of Jerusalem.  impossible for a loaded-down camel to get through, but doable if you take the cargo off its back.
• ·       Or maybe the eye of the needle is, you know, the eye of the needle, but that the “camel” is a thick rope of camel hair.
•      Our maybe it's just a counsel of perfection.

·        Well, OK, I do buy the hyperbole idea, but not the others.  

Recall last week’s gospel: Children, who depend on others for everything, get into heaven.  The rich young man — who, we can assume, depends on his wealth and power and his own good works (“all these things I have done since my youth”) — is out of luck.  I think the message is pretty clear.  Regardless of our material prosperity or poverty, we are to rely on the tender mercies of God for our salvation.