The Best Inheritance

Desiring an eternal inheritance rather than an earthly one

10/14/2018

Mark 10:17-30  As Jesus was setting out on a journey, a man ran up, knelt down before him, and asked him, "Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?" Jesus answered him, "Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone. You know the commandments: You shall not kill; you shall not commit adultery; you shall not steal; you shall not bear false witness; you shall not defraud; honor your father and your mother." He replied and said to him, "Teacher, all of these I have observed from my youth." Jesus, looking at him, loved him and said to him, "You are lacking in one thing. Go, sell what you have, and give to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me." At that statement his face fell, and he went away sad, for he had many possessions.

Several years ago I was having a conversation with my father and the topic of the family inheritance came up, who was going to get what. I tried to play it cool, but I confess it was hard to conceal my excitement thinking about what wealth my parents might leave for me. Now, we are immigrants from India and so we are not rich by any stretch of the imagination, but my parents are comfortably retired and do not have any debt, even their house is paid off. In addition, my brother and sister are married and financially fine, while I am just a poor parish priest living off the generosity of my parishioners, who occasionally throw me a bone. And, since I am the priest in the family, clearly I am my parents’ favorite child. So, I hope you can understand why my hopes were high to hear how big the slice of the inheritance pie would land on my plate.

But my face was crestfallen when my father announced: “I believe the best inheritance you can leave your children is to give them a Catholic school education. That is an inheritance they can never lose or even squander.” He continued: “It will be a blessing to them in this life and even in the next. The rewards of a Catholic school education are immense and immeasurable.” When he finished I asked: “So, does that mean I will not get the house?” Obviously I got the looks in the family, but not the brains. I will never forget my father’s comment, “the best inheritance you can leave your children is a Catholic school education because they will never be able to lose it.” That reminded me of Jesus’ powerful parable of the prodigal son in Luke 15 and how easily earthly inheritances can be lost with little effort. The father of the prodigal son should have sent his boy to a Catholic school!

Jesus echoes my father’s feelings about true wealth and wisdom in his interaction with the rich young man today. A wealthy man asks Jesus what he needs to do to inherit eternal life, to which Jesus replies: “You are lacking in one thing. Go, sell what you have and give to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.” The young man reacted almost exactly like I did listening to my father: “At that statement his face fell, and he went away sad, for his had many possessions.” I felt sad because I hoped to have many possessions! But did you catch the man’s original question: he had inquired: “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” The man in the gospel is worried about his inheritance (like I was) and mistakenly assumes the riches of earth will be identical to the riches of heaven. But they won’t be. And when Jesus replies by adding: “then come, follow me,” does he not seem to imply entering into the school of Christian discipleship, where Jesus is the master and mentor and model? In other words, the best inheritance is not worldly wealth and earthly riches but the wisdom and freedom that flow from faith, those will be the only possessions of any value in heaven. Everything else we leave on earth. And to teach that faith first and foremost is the real reason that Catholic schools exist. Every Catholic school strives to be a “school of Christian discipleship, where Jesus is master and mentor and model.”

I am very grateful to Fr. Patrick Watikah and to you all for the opportunity to celebrate the Masses here at Sacred Heart this weekend, and speak about Trinity Junior High. As you can probably guess, I now fully believe with complete conviction what my father said to me about the best inheritance being a Catholic school education. So, let me share some of the blessings that I have witnessed at Trinity Junior High, and then ask for your prayers and financial support in a second collection.

First of all, I want to share the exciting news that this year in August Trinity was able to buy the entire building we used to lease from the St. Scholastica Sisters. We were blessed by a generous benefactor, and we are now looking at a financial future that is sound and stable. We have moved from a paradigm of surviving to one of thriving, so your donations do not just keep the school barely afloat, but will help many more students grow in faith, that eternal inheritance my father was so fond of giving his children. Trinity’s enrollment this year is at 231, which is the highest it has been in seven years.

This year Bishop Taylor assigned Fr. Stephen Elser, who was ordained just in June, to be the chaplain at Trinity. Consequently, there are now two priests providing pastoral care for the school. I like to think of us as the dynamic duo of Batman and Robin, with collars instead of capes. One priest said his superpower was “transubstantiation” - the changing of bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Christ.  Let’s see Superman do that stunt.  Last week Fr. Stephen told me a young man approached him asking curious questions about the priesthood, no doubt he was inspired by Fr. Stephen’s example. Like the man in the gospel spoke to Jesus about how to inherit eternal life, so Trinity students have the opportunity to speak to priests about the best kind of inheritance, the inheritance of timeless faith and true freedom.

May I mention one more blessing at Trinity, which can also be found in all Catholic schools – Immaculate Conception, St. Boniface, Christ the King and Subiaco – namely, we wear uniforms. Uniforms are designed to direct a student’s attention away from fashion and fancy clothes and keep their focus on academics: science and social studies, astronomy and algebra. Sometimes people use clothes make a status statement about who is wealthy, and by contrast, you discover who is not. But like Jesus advised the rich young man in the gospel, “go, sell what you have, and give to the poor,” so Catholic school uniforms try to help students detach themselves from worldly standards and to attach themselves rather to other worldly ones. Through plaid jumpers and uniforms emblazoned with the cross of Christ, Catholic school students begin to value faith over fashion.

This whole homily can be reduced to one sentence that my father memorably made: “the best inheritance you can give your children is a Catholic school education because they can never lose it.” And Catholic school students will never lose that faith they learn, neither here on earth, nor even in eternity.

Praised be Jesus Christ!