OCTOBER 14th. TWENTY EIGHTH SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME
Gospel: Mark 10:17-30
Translated from a homily by Don Fabio Rosini, broadcast on Vatican Radio
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This Gospel is crucially relevant for our daily lives. If we wish to have the fullness of life then we must rid our hearts of their attachment to things that do not give life. We must give up these things and follow Jesus. A person cannot be a good parent or friend if their actions are primarily directed to satisfying their own needs and only secondarily concerned with being a good parent or friend. We cannot follow Jesus if we are following "goods" of a worldly sort. This presents us with a choice. Which sadness are we most anxious to avoid: the sadness of losing out on worldly rewards, or the sadness of losing Christ?

This Gospel should not be read in an abstract way, but as something crucially relevant for the lives of each one of us

This Sunday we have the famous Gospel of the young man who asks what he needs to do to enter the Kingdom of heaven. The reply from Jesus is that he must leave every thing and follow the Lord. The young man turns and walks away because he has many worldly goods. The risk with passages of this sort is that we tend to consider them in an external sort of way. We see how the rich man walks away from Jesus because he is attached to things of this world, and we consider the scene as if it were an event that happened way back in time and that has little connection with us. This is not the correct way to approach this text! The passage has something crucial to say to all of us, something that illuminates the life of each one of us. The exchange between Jesus and the young man who wants the fullness of life gives each one of us the key for obtaining the fullness of life.

Does the possession of worldly goods really exclude us from eternal life?

When the young man walks away sadly, Jesus says "How hard it is for the rich to enter the Kingdom of Heaven!" The disciples are disconcerted but Jesus upsets them even more, saying, "It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of Heaven!" Still more perplexed, the disciples ask themselves "Who then can be saved?" They have understood Jesus to mean that no-one can be saved if they have worldly goods. It is salvation itself that is at risk where worldly goods are concerned.

The opposite of love is not hate but the having of worldly goods

Let us see if we can find the key to this text. Is it possible to enter the Kingdom of Heaven with worldly goods? No. It is physically impossible to pass the threshold of death with worldly goods. Beyond that threshold one cannot take anything! But this principle is also true while we are in this world. In order to live a life as a child of God, I must leave behind that which pulls my heart in a different direction. But this principle doesn't just apply to people who have been given some kind of extraordinary call by God. It applies to everyone. I can't enter into the married life if I don't give up the ways of the old life previous to marriage. I can't enter into friendship if I don't overcome the possessiveness that is incompatible with genuine friendship.

A saying of St Francis might be of assistance in helping us to realize that this Gospel is crucially relevant to the drama of our daily lives. According to St Francis the opposite of love is not hate but the possession of material things. Love is an act of giving. It is not possible to love truly and to keep something for yourself. How can a man love a woman for his entire life if he doesn't give her everything that he is and everything that he has? How can a person be a good parent if they don't dedicate themselves completely to the task, if they don't put everything else in second place to the role of being a parent? We can enter into a relationship for the sake of that relationship or we can enter into them because they are beneficial to us.

Giving alone is not enough. We must give while following Jesus.

The young man asks, "What can I do so that I can possess eternal life?" The way that his question is posed shows how preoccupied he is with possessions. This man, like all of us, is insecure and threatened. Like all of us, he thinks that the deficiencies in his life can be filled by the possession of something. This is a fundamental deception that all of us are susceptible to. The truth is that we are only complete when we are with others, when we are in relationship with others, and when we love. It is possible to be surrounded by other people and not to have truly loved anyone. The young man in the Gospel has kept the commandments all of his life, but has not entered into relationships in the correct way. Above all, he has not entered into relationship with the one person that he needs to enter into relationship with in order to make all other relationships work in an authentic way. Jesus proposes a new way of life for the young man: to give rather than to have. But giving is not enough. The young man must give while following Jesus. It is impossible to follow Jesus if we are holding on to something else. If we are following a car on the road that is leading the way, it can sometimes happen that we end up following another car that looks similar. There are many cars that resemble the car of Jesus! There are many things that appear to give what Jesus gives. Many of the idols of this world seem to supply that which we are searching for. But Jesus is the only way who has defeated emptiness, the only one who has vanquished death, the only one we can enter into relationship with, conquering all our fears. Only he can give us complete fullness, but he can only do so if we are not following other cars.

Following Jesus necessarily involves losing the world

Even if we have made the correct choice every day and followed Jesus, each new day the decision to follow Jesus anew requires a loss. The choice to follow Jesus does not involve leaving something behind. It involves leaving everything behind. Detaching ourselves from things can be easy enough. It is detaching ourselves from our projects and our affections that is much more difficult. The first step that Jesus proposes to the young man is relatively straightforward. He just has to take his possessions and sell them or give them away. But then the process of following Jesus begins. To raise a child involves a loss. Young people nowadays tend to give priority to enjoying themselves before raising a family. Raising a family takes second place. The Psalm says, "The Gift of the Lord is the children of your youth". But none of us wishes to leave aside enjoyment or personal comfort until we discover God. As the Gospel says, it is impossible to leave everything and follow Jesus humanly speaking, but it is not impossible when we are with God. 

Giving up worldly good makes no sense unless we are giving them up so as to make room in our hearts for God

Until we open our hearts to God, until we enter into dialogue with him, we cannot obtain the liberty to leave everything and follow him. In fact, in the Gospel story, Jesus looks at the young man and loves him. Jesus enters into relationship with him. Unless there is a relationship with Jesus, all the sentiments expressed in this homily are complete rubbish. Giving up worldly goods, obeying commandments just for the sake of obeying them, makes no sense at all and takes us nowhere. It is the relationship with Jesus that gives sense to the leaving behind of the things of this world. This relationship recompenses us one hundredfold for that which we give up in order to dedicate ourselves to the relationship. The quality of our lives changes completely. The choice is really between having many things but nor having Christ, or possessing Christ and having everything that is important. That the Lord might grant us the grace to enter into this drama and make the choice for Christ!

In the Gospel, the young man has sadness in his heart. There are two kinds of sadness that we can have: the sadness of giving up the things of this world, and the sadness of  not having Christ. The choice is ours. Which sadness are we going to listen to? Which sadness is our priority to address? Of course it is difficult to lose out on the things of this world , but we lose much more if we turn away from Jesus.