""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.
This man was in the dark, looking for the light. He was blind, but sensed that Jesus could open his eyes. Jesus sought to help him clarify just what it was he was seeking. After all, a normal individual or even a wise teacher wouldn't be the ultimate authority on eternal life. No mere human could be so good as to be able to definitively answer where true goodness could be found. The man had a vague sense that, for some reason, Jesus was so good and so in contact with the truth as to be able to answer this question. What he saw only vaguely Jesus hoped to make lucid for him. It was emphatically true that no one but God alone was good, and therefore only he could provide the answer the man sought.
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.
Jesus, as a teacher who was clear sighted, could make those who became his disciples like him. He often did this by clarifying what was already visible to an individual and in this way confirming his spiritual acuity, demonstrating his reliability to the one who was still walking in some degree of spiritual blindness. When the world transition from blurry outlines and shadows to something more solid, the individual who had been helped by Jesus would stumble less and therefore become living proof of the truth of his words.
"Teacher, all of these I have observed from my youth."
In several things the young man was correct. He was right that Jesus was good and that he could answer his question. He understood the importance of keeping the commandments and had done so. But in every case Jesus led him to see how what he knew pointed beyond toward an answer which he did not yet possess, which Jesus alone could give.
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.""
The young man had affirmed that he had followed the second tablet of the law regarding love of neighbor and Jesus had not contradicted him. But there was something incomplete in his love of God, something with which his possession of wealth interfered. He needed to empty himself, to remove himself from the center of his own life, put Jesus at the center, and follow him. In this way he could fulfill the first tablet of the law regarding love of God. He could divest himself of earthly treasure in favor of treasure in heaven. He could love the Lord God with all his heart, mind, and strength. He could do so precisely because, "Jesus, looking at him, loved him".
At that statement, his face fell,
and he went away sad, for he had many possessions.
We now see how the man's wealth was an obstacle to his love of God. It prevented him from responding dynamically to God's call on his life. It was not just that he preferred his wealth over obedience. It was that he preferred it over drawing nearer to the one who had looked on him with a love so full he would never experience the like.
“Then who can be saved?”
Jesus looked at them and said,
“For men it is impossible, but not for God.
All things are possible for God.”
Even the disciples didn't understand. If the rich, who had the most resources, and who held the highest positions in society could not be saved then who could? It was only those who had no illusions about saving themselves, who had given up trying to earn salvation through their own resources. For it was such as they whom God himself would save. As Gabriel had said to Mary, "nothing will be impossible with God" see (Luke 1:37).
To the penitent God provides a way back,
he encourages those who are losing hope
and has chosen for them the lot of truth.
Even our reading from Sirach, which speaks urgently about our own responsibility, doesn't go so far as to say repentance is entirely our own initiative. Rather it is God who provides a way back, not the penitent who creates one. It is finally the desire for God that can lead to him. Settling for anything else leads to follow the young man who "went away sad, for he had many possessions".
No comments:
Post a Comment