Twenty-Eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Twenty-Eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time - Year B

In a past life I was a rugby league referee and, towards the latter end of my career, became a referees coach responsible for helping those who were starting out to learn their craft. As a coach, it was common that we would end up counselling new referees on their penalty counts and how freely they used the sin-bin. You see, having just completed their rules exam and finding themselves with a whistle, they became very legalistic, and would penalise everything strictly according to the law. The job of the referees coach was to help cultivate in them a feel for the game.

In this Sunday's Gospel we hear the story of a wealthy man who knows and has kept the law all his life and hopes that it is enough. He has come to Jesus hoping to be affirmed. And yet he still asks, 'What must I do?' Somewhere, deep inside, he knows that it is not enough.

Throughout the Gospel, Jesus speaks to us of a God that loves extravagantly. One that doesn't overlook our sinfulness but, as Jesus does in this story, looks steadily at us and loves us. In return, we are called not only to live, but to love with abundance.

Faced with Jesus' challenge to let go of all that ties him to this world and his sense of self - possessions, power, prestige - the wealthy man turns away in sadness.

As we listen to the Gospel this week, and the brief but pointed message from St Paul's letter to the Hebrews that eventually we must all give an account of our lives, let's take comfort that there is a God that loves us through our failings, and pray for the openness to God's ongoing call to be people with hearts that are fuller than our hands.

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