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11th October 28th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Gospel - Mark 10: 17 -30
Today’s Gospel makes for some pretty uncomfortable reading. When Jesus challenges the rich young man to sell all that he had, give the money to the poor and come and follow him, the young man does not respond because what Jesus was asking of him, to let go of his riches, meant that he would have to let go of all that gave his life meaning and security. He obviously lived by the commandments, praised the wisdom and innate goodness of Jesus, but could not let go, could not do the ‘one more thing’. Something like a tear in an otherwise seamless garment.
The struggle for us to live a life where our words, actions and manner of being complement each other – the seamless garment again - I think, is not dissimilar to Jesus’ invitation to the young man. It’s not about living a perfect life, whatever that is, nor is it about simply praying and giving money to the poor, for example. But it is about living our lives in such a way that reflect our belief in the world as the arena for the reign of God and the belief that we share a common humanity with all people, no matter where or who they are. Letting go of things that we deem to be our right, letting go of culturally and religiously entrenched attitudes that blind us to a wider vision of what God desires for all people oftentimes are the things Jesus invites us to ‘sell’ No one is saying it isn’t a painful process because anyone attempting to do this can find him or herself on the outside of mainstream society’s accepted order of things.
English writer C.S. Lewis in his essay on Christian Apologetics in God in the Dock put it this way: "We can make people attend to the Christian point of view for half an hour or so, but the moment they have gone away from our lecture or laid down our article, they are plunged back into a world where the opposite position is taken for granted….."
But Jesus’ challenge, despite the pain, our blinkered vision and when we can’t seem to move beyond the ‘one more thing’, is always about an invitation into life in its fullness.
Perhaps, too, even as we falter, it’s always good to know that Jesus’ never condemned the young man but loved him, even as the latter turned away.
Prayer
Lord God, give us the hope and heart of your Son. He is your face on earth in whom we see best the divine justice, divine mercy and the divine compassion to which we are all called.. He showed us the Way, lived it for us, suffered from it, and died because of it so that we might live with new heart, new mind, and new strength despite all the death and contradictions to which we are daily subjected. Amen
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