It is 14th October 2018. We celebrate the Twenty-eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time. The readings are from Wisdom 7:7-11; the second reading is from Hebrews 4:12-13; and the Gospel from Mark 10:17-30. Wisdom is not that easy to obtain in our lives by our own efforts and merits. It is not that cheap commodity for those who love wealth and the worldly power and riches. Wisdom is a free gift from God for those who are willing to surrender, trust and rely on God totally for their livelihood. It is a deep longing and desire to inherit the eternal life by means of obedience to the Word of God and through charitable means. The Catechism (ccc 2544) teaches us: “The precept of detachment from riches is obligatory for entrance into the Kingdom of Heaven.” There is a thirst for more in everything. There is a search within each one of us. The thirst for more is unquenchable in human heart blazing and destroying the space that is reserved exclusively for God. When we are in love with things and riches of the world, we are never satisfied. We become greedy monsters who would like to swallow by the evil means we employ. When we have become greedy, it is not that is easy to let go. Who is praying for wisdom today? We pray for many things that is material and useless. Riches and the worldly attachments always blur our vision to acquire wisdom. When we are possessed by people and obsessed by things, it is very hard to embrace wisdom and seeking for it. In reality, when we have wisdom from God, we have everything we need. But in practice, we all are mesmerized by the lure and lucrative attractions of the material world and leaving the most significant thing we need for life is the spirit of wisdom. Even those who have vowed a life of detachment is more attached and believing the material world more important than the spiritual welfare. Most of us have come to believe that we can live without wisdom from God but not worldly wisdom. Wisdom is the teacher of the soul and conscience of every human person. It is wisdom that allows to detach and provides courage to give all we possess for the noble and right cause of another. In the first reading, we are given King Solomon as model who prayed for wisdom and God ended up giving him not only wisdom and all that he did not ask for including riches, success, recognition and blessings. There is nothing compared to wisdom that God could give us. There are two young people are searching in today’s readings namely king Solomon and the young man who encountered Jesus. One found God and another left the offer of Jesus depending on their desire to discern God or wealth. In the second reading St. Paul reminds us that the Word of God is the Wisdom of the Father that has power to cut through the soul and marrow. “Indeed, the word (logos) of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing until it divides soul from spirit, joints from marrow; it is able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.” (Heb. 4:12). The responsorial Psalm pleads, “Fill us with your love, O Lord, and we will sing for joy.” (Ps.90:14). The Gospel clearly puts across the warning against the hindrances of the riches, failed vocation of a young person to be at the service of Jesus, and a discernment between ambition and the reality of life. Even though the wealth and riches are the blessings of God for fidelity (Ps 24:1; Isa. 45:14; 60:5), yet it can make us greedy, oppressive, indifferent and eventually detached from wisdom (2 Sam. 12:1-14; Isa. 10:3; Jer. 5:27; 17:3; Ezek. 7:11; Hos. 12:8; Mic. 6:12). If we have acquired wealth and riches at the expense of the poor, it surely detaches us from God and the Word. When we value our riches more than the relationship and the service to Jesus, we begin to lose sight of wisdom of the Father. We gain wisdom and blessings only by giving away our riches and wealth generously. As long as Christ remains our riches our life, we are surely sustained, secured in Him and we will never lack anything as long as Jesus is our Shepherd of our souls. May the Lord help us to search for wisdom of the Father than the riches of the world. May you have a good day.