Posted on October 11, 2024 View all Gospel Reflection
“You are lacking in one thing…” (Mark 10:21)
Imagine if someone told you that to get to your life’s dream goal you only had to do one thing? Most people would jump at the chance to do that one thing and attain the fulfillment of their dreams. All of us are focused on different goals in life. Some are short-term (i.e., pass my next test, cook dinner tonight, etc.) and some are longer-term (graduate from school, finish the house repair project, etc.) and all of these require both steps and a final vision to get them accomplished. But all of these type of goals have one thing in common: they seek to fulfill something that will make us happy. But in these goals, the happiness is focused on things having to do with our life here on earth.
In to Gospel, Jesus is approached by this rich young man who asks the ultimate question, that question that has as its goal life beyond the earth – eternal life! What a refreshing question that must have been for Jesus. In fact Jesus answers him in two steps. The first step was to respond by saying that we must follow the commandments that came from God through Moses. And we know that even for ourselves, those are challenging enough! Do we tell small lies, are we envious, do we fail to reverence God above all things, etc. But yet, this rich young man responded “Teacher, all of these I have observed from my youth.” (Mark 10:20) That is amazing! For anyone to be so faithful is remarkable, but to say that this person who was rich was faithful — that is even more remarkable. After all, that would mean that he was not subject to selfish desires, envy, or deceit in his relationships with others and that the financial success he enjoyed as 100% honestly obtained. Would that we were so faithful!
“Jesus, looking at him, loved him…” (Mark 10:21a) and then continued… “You are lacking in one thing.” As the young man heard these words he must have felt such great joy. Knowing that Jesus loved him, acknowledged his faithfulness to the commandments and that he was but one small step away from eternal life…. What would that final step be?
“Go, sell what you have, and give to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me. At that statement his face fell, and he went away sad, for he had many possessions.” (Mark 10:22) Any bystander must have asked themselves ‘What just happened!?!’ Jesus knew that for this young man, his possessions stood in the way of him giving his heart to God. While the possessions were in and of themselves not sinful, nor sinfully obtained, they were an impediment to his final step towards eternal life.
St. Ignatius of Loyola speaks directly to this in his meditation on the rich young man and the response that is necessary. He observed that for this young man, his possessions had become an inordinate attachment that would hold him back from God’s call. St. Ignatius teaches about the need for us to detach ourselves from the love of materials things – even good things. For love of them can impede our ability to enter into heaven. The example of the “eye of the needle” is striking. You can either take it literally or look at it as a reference to a gate in the Jerusalem wall for entry after-hours that was much smaller and required a person to get off of their camel and enter. Either way this image asks us to become small to ourselves.
Are we ready to take that final step? We need to ask the Lord God for the grace to let those things that we have become attached to go. We must always trust in God’s power and plan. Remembering that “for human beings it is impossible, but not for God. All things are possible for God.” (Mark 10:27)