The quest for God and eternal life is something many of us believers aspire to and yet attachment to various objects of human desire stands in the way of our progress. The gospel reading of this 28th Sunday in ordinary times, Year B, (Mark 10:17-30) tells the story of a very rich man, who came running to Jesus, and asked him, “Good Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus, seeing through his heart, and knowing how attached he was to his possessions, asked him to “let go and let God”. But, the man, who had no difficulty keeping the commandments, which are mostly avoidances, “though shall not” found this act of doing something for those in need too much to behold, fell into depression, and left, very sad. He was so clung to his riches that his hands were so tied up and not free to be extended for giving.
Hearing this story, our minds may drift off to the rich and famous, but that would be hypocritical because it is about all of us. If you go to “Globalrichlist.com” and enter your yearly income, it will surprise you as you find out that you rank in the upper 25% of those richer than 99% of the world’s population. So, this parable is most likely about us, because it is about hoarding, grabbing, selfishness, lack of compassion, ill-disposition to share, self-centeredness, etc. It is about our desire for eternal life but not being willing to do what it takes to achieve it. It is about attempting to self-justify ourselves into the kingdom of heaven.
The question is this: What is much more important to me than eternal life? What am I not willing to give up for the sake of the kingdom of heaven? How do things like pleasure, appetite, family, friends, sense of independence, selfishness, pride, ego, wealth, position, power, etc. stack up against my need for blessedness? True life, my friends, is not about what we have acquired, but about how we live, who we help, and what we have given that others may grow. What matters most in life is the role I have played in the well-being of others. We need to use whatever stuff we have on this earth to become a distributive channel of God’s grace and blessing to humanity. What God has blessed us with should never become a banded to happiness or a stumbling block to eternal glory. As a friend also says, “If material things are what you’re talking about when you say, “I am blessed”, You have no idea what a blessing is”. May the good Lord grant us a graceful appetite for eternal life. Amen.
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