What is of absolute importance to us—eternal life or material wealth? In the rampant lotto fever, must we really choose? Can’t they coexist side by side? Must one be absolutely absolute?
The innate quest
The man appeared in the scene like a jogger, running up to Jesus who was on the way to Jerusalem. Representative of human beings in search of the way to salvation in a world beset with its own self-destructive inclinations, he knelt before Jesus whom he obviously took for a prophet of God. His one question to the “Good Teacher”: What must he do to inherit eternal life? The unsettling response of Jesus immediately touched the fundamental issue in such a quest or hunger. If you come down to it, God alone is good, THE good. Should anything else be considered “good”?
Even as we sing “You alone are holy” in the Gloria of the Mass, for God alone is really good and holy, the commandments of God are irreplaceable guidelines in our world where evil and danger lurk. They are the Decalogue or “ten words” of wisdom from God to safeguard any traveler in this life, and the man could sincerely say he had lived by them. But he felt something was still lacking; the man’s inquiry indicated some dissatisfaction and a quest for something more. Here was one of the just children of Israel, shaped by the traditional observances, but hungry for more.
The invitation
Jesus looked at the man with love. Here is someone with the makings of a disciple, not happy with the ordinary and aspiring for more (magis). And Jesus invited him to the heights of spirituality and intimacy with him: “Go, sell what you have, and give to the poor…then come, follow me.” To follow Jesus means to be His disciple, preferring Him over everything, accompanying Him without looking back, detached oneself from anything else whatsoever. Getting rid of what is previously valued as vitally important and giving them to the poor means the discovery of someone truly more important, of something absolutely more indispensable. This is the “more” of life the man was looking for, and what Jesus said was still lacking in him.
The invitation, however, proved too much for the man. His face fell and he went away sad, because he had many possessions. He came jogging in full of dreams and he limped away downcast, probably resigned to his passion for material wealth. The soil was indeed rich and fertile, but the seed had little chance with the weeds and the brambles firmly in place. Addressing His disciples, Jesus made the pointed observation, “How hard it is for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God.” To be tied down by earthly things and possessed by material wealth is to deny oneself access to the kingdom. It is tantamount to having another heaven, where another god, mammon, reigns and is served. To be free for God is a prerequisite to receiving God’s ultimate gift to us, eternal life with Him in His kingdom.
Alálaong bagá, salvation in everlasting life comes from God alone. Nothing we do can earn it; no earthly wealth can buy it. That is why it is an impossibility for us human beings, but not for God, for whom all things are possible. It is His guaranteed gift to us. We can only gratefully and humbly like little children welcome it. It is wise not to be deceived by appearances and to discern what is really good. It is final that to renounce earthly things for the sake of Jesus and of the Gospel would never be in vain. In this present age it means already having a return of hundredfold: you become a part of the community of disciples, and therefore have many more brothers and sisters, mothers and children, houses or lands, and (Saint Mark added with some humor) persecutions, as well! To follow Jesus is indeed to have many more beloved to serve and also sufferings to bear in faith, in joy and in love. But in the age to come, the only currency is everlasting life with God, the One absolutely absolute.
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