This probably isn’t the first time this fellow encountered Jesus. The first time, there was some distance between them: this fellow was part of the crowd listening to Jesus’ teaching. Although he was captivated, he wasn’t convinced. He knew the Lord was serious, talking about big questions – eternal death and eternal life – but nothing he heard seemed to apply to him. Who knows, maybe he wasn’t too badly tempted to sin or ever troubled by devils? Perhaps he left to get something to eat himself before the loaves and fish were multiplied. He didn’t have a physical disability which needed healing, seeing as he could run up to Jesus and kneel before him.
So, we have this second, direct encounter, in which the fellow delivers his famous question: “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” The question reveals the sense he has of himself. It’s inherently exclusionary; it doesn’t let anyone else in. We have our versions of that solo thinking. Its statements run, “I don’t need to … to be …”. Well might we wonder what answer we would receive if we put the same question ourselves. It might look like the first part of the Lord’s question: eternal life, life with God, comes to those who spend their mortal lives with him now by pleasing him, doing his will.
Instead, we should be asking, “What must we do to inherit eternal life? How do we get to heaven?” But people like this fellow live by themselves. That’s why it’s remarkable that he approaches Jesus: at last, the bubble might get burst, and there’s this chance to undertake the big project of laying hold of a shared destiny in God.
We know what happens in the second encounter: the Lord answers the man’s question by repeating the social commandments of the Decalogue, admittedly in a strange order which puts honouring father and mother last – which might give a sense of what should be coming next; and then the Lord calls him to discipleship through poverty, a call which isn’t taken up.
What we can light on is the pursuit of validation and affirmation from Jesus. In worldly terms, this fellow can claim that he is already blessed by God. He has the blessing of wealth; he has the blessings which come from keeping the commandments. He need not have put his question to Jesus, but he did. If we did indeed put this question to Jesus, would it go: “What else do I need to do to inherit eternal life, you know, apart from keeping the commandments?” We’d like an answer to that question, but we’ll never get it. We’d very much like to read the face of Jesus and see the same love coming to us as came to this man. But we are earthbound pilgrims and he is our heavenly king.
The Lord doesn’t usually work by giving validation and affirmation. Those sorts of things come at the end of time. Scripture tells us what that will sound like. The divine Master will say: “Well done, good and faithful servant, enter into the joy of your Lord.” We can expect, however, that the Lord will give us not validation or affirmation, but rather consolation. Consolation is when our inmost self is drawn towards God and receives fruits of the Holy Spirit: love, joy, peace, fraternity. These come, and come interiorly, because we have been faithful to God. The Lord was ready to give this fellow the consolation of his company and fellowship with his disciples: then the bubble would have been completely burst. Yes, this would be humbling, as his wealth goes off to the poor, but the consolations (who is always God, and for this fellow also neighbours) would strengthen him to continue on the new way.
Our next step is to give up the inhibitor which is preventing us from taking the new way Jesus wants us to take. For this fellow and many others, it’s wealth. The Lord has warned us what a strong inhibitor wealth can be: camels and needles and all that. And there are other inhibitors, which we can spot because they’re neither good nor bad features of life, but they have the power to push us off the new way of Jesus. Perhaps you have a personality trait which acts like an inhibitor to following Jesus with all your heart, whether it’s an inherited trait or an acquired one. You might be living with an illness or living with someone else’s illness, whether physical or mental. There might be a task at home or work which is required of you but which isn’t life-giving. None of these things are necessarily death-dealing, but they can become so if we don’t give them to Jesus. A shy person will find their shyness overcome by the welcome of others; someone living with anxiety can reach out to the Prince of Peace and discover another approach to the same feeling.
This rich man’s question and his reaction to Jesus’ answer to it show us that what isn’t necessarily a blessing can become a way for blessing others, if we give that feature of our life to Jesus. We ask the Lord to make us wise to ourselves, so that we ever follow his way and so inherit eternal life.
Fr Paul Rowse, OP
Parish Priest
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