Posted by The WORD in other words (2009) by Fr Cornelio Alpuerto SVD – University of San Carlos( Talamban), Cebu City
Tuesday 20th Week in Ordinary Time
Is there a sadder sight than that of a man walking away from the Lord Jesus just after he has come so close to him as to be within touch of him?
Such was the sight of the rich young man just after he had had Jesus’ answer to his question. What question? Actually, he had two. The first: What must I do to win eternal life? And the answer: Keep the commandments. But he had been keeping those. And so, came the second: What more should I do? And so, Jesus told him: If you want to be perfect, sell all you have, give the money to the poor and come follow me. Then it was that he walked away sad – because he had too much to be given up.
Indeed, to be a disciple of Jesus costs so much and the rich young man could not afford to pay the exorbitant price! And so, he went away sad.
But should wealth stand in the way of one’s following of Christ to eternal life? Could it nor even be used to buy eternal life with, as it were, by helping others with it: feeding the hungry, having the sick taken care of, and the like?
To be sure, many make use of their wealth that way—may their tribe increase! But many, many more are utterly unmindful of the plight of the deprived and the needy, even as they continue to amass wealth and live in luxury. Greed becomes their ruling passion and money, their god. And their greed is not only for more and more money, but also for its concomitants: power and influence and worldly splendor.
Now, to be a disciple of Jesus and thereby to prepare oneself for his kingdom is not only to moderate one’s greed, but to do away with it altogether. It is to go through a constant process of self-emptying.
Self- emptying as a matter of lifestyle? By choice? For the rich? No, not even for the poor would that be an easy choice!
No wonder, Jesus says in today’s Gospel, “…it will be very hard for rich young people to enter the kingdom of heaven.”
Hard, but not impossible. “For God everything is possible.” Jesus is as clear on this point as the heavenly messenger was at the Annunciation. Remember St. Luke’s account of it? If it had been possible for a woman (Elizabeth) beyond child-bearing age to get pregnant, so it was possible for a girl (Mary) to conceive a child without having any relation with a man. So also, though extremely difficult, it is possible for a rich person to end up in heaven.
But even before that, while still on this side of heaven, do we sometimes find ourselves in an extremely difficult situation? Let’s hold on to this heavenly statement as to our only source of hope, yes, hold on to it with all our heart: everything is possible to God!
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