FROM DETACHMENT TO ATTACHMENT

28th Sunday in Ordinary Time

Indigenous People’s Sunday / Extreme Poverty Day

October 11, 2015

Wis 7: 7 – 11 / Ps 90 / Heb 4: 12 – 13 / Mk 10: 17 – 30 or 17 – 27

The “need to belong” theory in psychology states that “people have a basic need to feel closely connected to things, people, and events.” No wonder we all have our own share of attachments. Some of us are so attached to Facebook that our day becomes incomplete without having posted a selfie or an ATM moment in our accounts. Some of us are too attached to our pets that we bring them even to Mass. And some of us are too attached to our “significant other” that we never miss to text him/her upon waking up and before going to sleep. Indeed, it is part of our nature to belong, to cling, and to attach.

In our Gospel reading today, we met the man who asked Jesus a question on how to inherit eternal life. Jesus responded to him by enumerating the “second table” of the commandments which deal about our duties towards our neighbors. Yet he told Jesus that he has followed such commandments. However, Jesus told him that he lacked one thing – the “first table” of the commandments; those which talk about our relationship with God. And according to the narrative, the first requirement to gain the treasure in heaven who is God, is to “go…sell…and give… everything that he has.” And we know that the man went away sad for he had many possessions. The man cannot detach from his wealth, thus preventing him from attaching himself to God.

Detachment does not simply mean desiring or wanting nothing. For that would be against human nature. Rather detachment means to desire nothing more than we desire God; to seek nothing more than we seek God; and to want nothing more than we want God. Obviously we have to detach ourselves from whatever draws us away from God, especially if it is clearly evil. Again our experiences teach us how easy it is for us to get fixated on something already good in itself, and they soon come between us and God who is our greatest and highest good. Truly it is difficult to choose between two good things, yet God expects this of us. God’s love can be a bit demanding and once led St. Teresa to complain, “If this is the way you treat your friends, it is no wonder you have so few of them.”

And so we also have to learn to detach ourselves from something already good for a greater and higher good—and God is our greatest and highest good. But the paradox is that the moment we desire nothing more than we desire God; when we seek nothing more than we seek God; and when we want nothing more than we want God, when we attach ourselves completely to God, then everything else fall into their proper places and we discover that we never really lost them when we let them go. All good things are given back to us—sometimes even better. St. Teresa beautifully expresses this: “Quien a Dios tiene nada le falta!” (He who has God in nothing is wanting!)

However, despite the difficulty, this is still our challenge today – to detach from the good things of this world in order to attach ourselves to our greatest and supreme good in heaven who is God. We have to remember that detachment is a process. It begins with slowly letting go of little things, of particular persons and events in order to arrive at our goal that is heaven. Thus, in our journey from detachment to attachment, let us listen to the advice of St. Teresa who said, “It is essential that you begin well by making an earnest and most determined resolve not to stop until you reach your goal.”

Catalina Piedad, a Yolanda survivor, once narrated her experience after the storm. She, together with some neighbors, decided to hold a procession from their neighborhood towards the Church. While they were walking towards the Church, a truck with relief goods passed by. Instead of following the truck, they continued with the procession despite the hunger. And during the interview, she said these words, “Kung ang Dios nga hindi kami iniwan sa bagyo, bakit naming iiwanan ang Dios para lang doon sa pagkain.” Food is something good especially for the hungry Catalina. Yet like Mary of Bethany, she has chosen something better, the ultimate good who is God. Indeed, Catalina’s story is a story from detachment to attachment.

For the man in the Gospel, it was his material possessions that prevented him from attaching himself to God. How about you? What prevents you from attaching yourself to God? Are they things, people, or events?

And so we pray this prayer of St. Nicholas of Flue:

“My Lord and my God, take from me

everything that distances me from you.

My Lord and my God, give me

everything that brings me closer to you.

My Lord and my God, detach

me from myself to give my all to you.'

Amen!

Photo taken from en.wikipedia.org