B: 28th Sun of OrdTime (14 Oct 2018) - THE BANE AND BOON OF WEALTH - Mk 10:17-30

“It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God” (Mk 10:25).

This quote is a tall order for any true would-be follower of Jesus. It demands one’s radical material destitution where a total renunciation of wealth is mandatory. With Jesus in our gospel challenging the rich man to sell and give all that he has to the poor (v. 21), is it tantamount to saying that wealth is evil? And anybody who has wealth needs to dispossess oneself completely in order to enter the kingdom of God (vv. 23-25)? The key probably to answering this question is by interpreting the perplexing words above; what does a-camel-passing-through-the-eye-of-the-needle mean?

Most biblical commentators opine that this is just a rhetorical speech that should be taken allegorically (not literally). Nevertheless, even if it is just a literary technique, the message it delivers is straightforward: it exposes the impossibility for a rich man to partake of God’s abode since it is very improbable for a camel to enter into a needle’s eye to which he is being compared (see also Mt 19:24 and Lk 18:25). The Greek word used here is “kamelos” which semantically refers to the four-legged-animal with a hump on the back known as the camel. This creates a satirical irony in Jesus’ speech for it depicts a very huge animal that attempts to penetrate into the very tiny hole of a needle, affirming henceforth the automatic damnation of the rich.

Interestingly, a textual variation of Lk 18:25 has the word “kamilos” (the same word in Aramaic) which literally means “a rope or a ship’s cable”. Appropriately, the rope imagery is more realistic and carries more sense than the initial camel imagery. For a rope to pass through the eye of a needle, it has to be dismantled into tiny strands. And such is precisely the very idea of the gospels: a rich person needs to be detached or is not consummated with his/her greed for ambitious wealth by gradually shredding off his/her possessions in the service of the poor. A person may keep some essential goods but the important thing is that the greater portion should be allotted for charity (cf. Zacchaeus Story esp. Lk 19:8).

A popular Filipino proverb goes, “Kapag maiksi ang kumot, matutong mamaluktot” (“When the blanket is short, learn how to bend”). The adage does not say that one should not own a blanket; it is part of one’s nocturnal sleep. Yet, it may denote that if one needs to learn how to bend regularly, the size of a blanket should just be enough. Otherwise, if it is too big, he/she does not bother anymore to bend. Such is also true to a person with a very big material property… he/she becomes very comfortable inside a mansion, that he/she does not bother anymore to bend down to dirty his/her hands in work, to bend down to look at the faces of his/her neighbors, to bend down to appreciate the beauty of tiny creations, to bend down to give assistance to the poor, and to bend down on his/her knees before God in thanksgiving.

Wealth may be a bane of spiritual living, but it is more of a boon to being charitable to others. Many, however, continue to believe that with wealth anything is possible. On the contrary, our gospel affirms that it is only through God that everything is possible (Mk 10:27)… since, as the First Reading proclaims, before God’s Wisdom “all gold is a pinch of sand, and beside her silver ranks as mud” (Wis 7:9).

- Rex Fortes, CM