You Never Know. Maybe, He Prayed
over It!!!!
In
today's gospel, many people are quick to look down at the rich, young man. What
a chance he had to follow Jesus, but he missed its opportunity.
In the
world then, and maybe still today, the man had three things going for him. First,
he was a male in a patriarchal culture, second, he was young, third, he was
rich. How many would long to be in that triad today?
In
addition, he was fulfilling the Ten Commandments. What more could he do? He
was, indeed, practicing in good faith a business relationship with God, called mercantile spirituality.
When
Jesus tells him what he needed to do, he was crestfallen and walked away sad.
The problem, maybe, was not the wealth, but rather, his attitude toward it. He
could not give it up. Certainly, he was practicing a mercantile spirituality. If I do this, then, God has to do that.
Many of us still practice such a spirituality.
That
Jesus did not mean this particular demand of all of his followers, viz., to
surrender their wealth, is clearly seen in reading the Christian Bible. We are all called to live with poverty of
spirit, (when, with God’s Help, we recognize that everything we have is a gift
or something predicated on a gift from God. Even more, we all stand, therefore,
before God with empty -- and soiled-- hands.) There comes a time in all of
our lives when we confronted by this reality. No matter who you are or what you have, the essence of Catholic faith
is to put all one’s trust in God and to rely on God as our only security and
well-being.
Something
was amiss with this rich young man and it was his addiction to his affluence.
(Someone defined an addiction as something that one can't not do.) The man was
addicted to his wealth. Again, that does problem make him a bad guy. Rather, he
was an addicted guy. He apparently was
suffering from a pathology for possessions.
Even
more now, than then, followers of Jesus are tempted by a similar addiction,
viz., affluenza, the temptation to believe that with resources, we can run our
show. There are several symptoms of affluenza,
First,
we get used to the secularism of the middle-class society of which we are a
part. We live in a nation whose motto is “In God we trust”. But do we or our
nation really trust in God? How easy it is for us to fall into line with
conventional wisdom, (aka the system, the way it has always been.) Many are
Deists, viz., yes, I believe in God, what else do you want to ask me?
Second,
we get the flawed notion of individualism, every person for himself, looking
out for número uno. In the early 1980’s,,
Christopher Lasch labelled the pathology as the culture of narcissism. Scientists tell us today what our
Judaeo-Christian tradition has been telling. (Islamic folks are also of the
same opinion.) Relationships have a life of their own and we are our brother's
keeper! (Sorry, Cain!)
Third,
we all get caught up at times in the consumer mentality frequently. As a
follower of Jesus, we should measure others by who they are (our sisters and
brothers) and not by what they have.
Fourth,
there is so much going on around us in our hyperactive culture that we get numb
to the problems of others and to our part in possibly of offering some help. (Remember down in the Bronx, POTS, viz.,
Part of the Solution, with the students getting hands on with the poor who
lived quite near them?) That was an attempt to respond to symptomatic
numbness.
Fifth,
we measure things so frequently pragmatically. What gets everything done
efficiently and speedily is good. No matter that people might get hurt For
example, mass layoffs are justified by people who have tremendous salaries.
Even more, when they themselves are furloughed, the golden parachute is well
laden.
Sixth,
we tend to measure life by success. So frequently, at funerals, people salute
the deceased with how much they helped the speaker to be successful. Rarely do you hear a salutation on how much
the deceased inspired faith and hope and compassion in Christian living!
The
reference to the eye of the needle which puzzles and troubles so many, but
scripture people say there is no proof that that was a small gate into
Jerusalem. Granted it is an example of Near Eastern hyperbole. But apparently,
what Jesus is saying is that the temptation to succumb to the world (aka the
system) is too much for all of us. For
us, salvation is impossible, viz., you can't save yourself. However, with God,
all things are possible.
We
assume that, for the rich young man, today was the end of the story. We will
never know the outcome of the story. However, Jesus says all things are possible with God. Maybe the man prayed over what
Jesus said. (Remember that the rich young man was on the level; he did approach
Jesus that day). Maybe, he listened to Jesus again. One might wonder what the
rich young man’s reaction would have been to the news of Jesus’ death and
resurrection. We will never know, but we should not write him as a loser. God
works in all our lives in ways that we don't know completely. Let us hope that
maybe, the rich, young man got his act together and got what Jesus was saying!
In addition, let all of us hear Jesus again as well. As Pope John Paul II, we are all called to hear the Gospel again,
maybe for the first time! 101115AD jfq
