As he was setting out on a journey, a man ran up, knelt down before him, and asked him, "Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?" Jesus answered him, "Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone. You know the commandments: 'You shall not kill; you shall not commit adultery; you shall not steal; you shall not bear false witness; you shall not defraud; honor your father and your mother.'" He replied and said to him, "Teacher, all of these I have observed from my youth." Jesus, looking at him, loved him and said to him, "You are lacking in one thing. Go and 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. Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, "How hard it is for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!" (Mark 10:17-23)
Many of us might find ourselves in the same situation as the young man. We grew up with the Ten Commandments, probably memorized them. And we follow them (or at least we like to think we do). We haven't killed anyone or missed Sunday Mass (as long as the game isn't on), so that makes us perfect, right?
We cannot view holiness as a To-do list. Christianity is about a journey. That's what our Baptist brothers and sisters fail to understand with their notions of being "saved."
Nevertheless, it seems that this young man was making good progress on that journey. He "ran up" to Jesus, not with an ailment to be healed, but with an honest desire to grow closer to God. We read that "Jesus, looking on him, loved him." This man could have been a great saint in the Kingdom of God; he could have been another Apostle. But then Jesus asked "too much" of him. There are a few variations in the Synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark, and Luke). In the Gospel according to Matthew, we read that "Jesus said to him, 'If you wish to be perfect, go, sell what you have and give it to the poor" (Matthew 19:21).
This is not an exceptional call. Jesus asked the same of everyone who followed Him: "So likewise everyone of you that doth not renounce all that he possesseth cannot be my disciple" (Luke 14:33).
But what is the response of the rich young man? Silence. None of the Gospels record him as saying anything in response. He had nothing to say. The rich man "went away sad, for he had many possessions" (Mark 10:22).
He could have been a follower of Christ were it not for his love of his possessions.
It's all too easy for us to sit back and shake our heads at this young man. What a pity. But that idleness is not acceptable. We cannot divorce ourselves from the call of Christ. The Word of God is not a story book. Everything in the Bible is living and effective. So when Jesus says "Everyone of you that doth not renounce all that he possesseth cannot be my disciple" (Luke 14:33) or "sell what you have" (Matthew 19:21), He was not just speaking to the crowd or the young man. He was speaking to you and I!
We live in a culture where wealth and its accessories are ends in themselves. The American dream is no longer owning a house in which to raise a family, it is to own the most toys, the latest smartphone, the nicest car on the block. People, human beings, are viewed as units of labor by capitalists and socialists alike. The rich drink champagne on private islands while people starve to death. Modern slavery leaves millions in bondage. Children are literally butchered by Planned Parenthood and their allies so that their body parts might be sold for a profit. The words of Christ, "sell what you have" apply very much to us, brothers and sisters.
But this teaching is too hard. Christ can't expect us to give so much. This must only apply to monks and nuns.
Father David Knight wrote a book called His Way, a real punch-in-the-gut kind of book after the spirit of St. Josemaria Escriva, that says otherwise. Writing about lay spirituality, he identifies the call of all Christians as one of martyrdom. Now, this isn't the kind of martyrdom that you might be thinking of, at least not necessarily. The word "martyr" literally comes from the Greek word for "witness." Therefore, we are all called to witness to the Gospel in our daily lives.
That goes whether we are religious or lay people. We all have the spirituality of martyrdom. But then Father Knight makes an important distinction. Within the spirituality of martyrdom, there are different life-styles. There is the monastic life-style - what we typically think of when we read "sell what you have" and then there is the life-style of the laity - secularity. Father Knight writes that "The lay Christian's life-style is secularity; and his spirituality is martyrdom."
Secularity means we live in the world but are not of the world. We walk the streets just like everyone else, but we will not submit to the prevailing winds of the culture. Lay secularity reaches people where they are. Through our interactions with people in their daily lives, we have the opportunity to live out an authentic witness to the message of the Gospel, a martyrdom.
Now I am hesitant here, for I do not want to fall into the Protestant heresy of interpreting the Bible by myself, but after reading some of the commentaries of the Church Fathers on this passage, I can say that I believe Christ's instructions that we sell what we have and give it to the poor, does not necessarily mean that each and every Christian must sell their houses and go out and live on the streets of Calcutta - not to diminish the vast importance and value of such a life-style in anyway!
The two important words in Christ's message to the young man (and to us) are "sell" and "give."
The real evil in riches is not the mere possession of them. St. Hilary of Poitiers writes in his commentary on this passage that "To have riches is no sin; but moderation is to be observed in our havings." Likewise, St. John Chrysostom writes: "What He spoke was not condemning riches in themselves, but those who were enslaved by them."
What all Christians must sell is not necessarily their possessions themselves, but rather their attachment to them. Renounce the spirit of possessiveness, understand that everything you have is nothing.
I once heard this story of a young priest who was visiting an older monsignor. The priest had everything he needed for the journey in a suitcase which he brought to the monsignor's office. He was surprised by the lack of possessions in the older man's office. He probably could have fit everything that the monsignor had in his suitcase with room to spare. "Monsignor," he asked, "why do you have so little? I have more with me in this suitcase, and I'm just passing through." The monsignor smiled and said "So am I."
We were not made for this world, we are just passing through. Therefore we can never really own anything of this world. In every account of the rich young man, Jesus follows the command "sell what you have" with its reward: "and you will have treasure in heaven." The only things of value are spiritual treasures, grace. The important things in life are not the balance of your bank account or your designer clothes, but the souls you bring back to God, the relationships you have with God as their foundation, the love you show your neighbor.
You might think you're getting off the hook here. Great, now I don't worry about selling all that I have in order to get into heaven. Phew. All I have to do is pretend that my brand new car and flat screen television have no value while I enjoy them.
In fact, I believe that we are being called to do much more than simply sell all of our physical goods. It is not enough to merely whisper your rejection of riches. "For just as a body without a spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead" (James 2:26). If your faith does not cause you to make real changes in your life, if it does not bring you to action,, then your faith is dead. You have not experienced a real conversion, you've merely decided to accept an idea. Faith calls us to live differently.
This is the "give" part of Christ's command. Start with the small things. Effective conversions consist of baby steps. Maybe instead of buying that five dollar latte, you donate the money you saved to your local pregnancy resource center like Birthright. You could hold off on upgrading your home's entertainment system to ensure that you have more time to bond with your friends or your children instead of staring at a screen. Pay attention to who you buy from or even which charities you've sent checks to just so they'll stop calling. Avoid those companies that donate to Planned Parenthood, anti-marriage lobbies, and other groups that violate Catholic social teaching. Be wary of charities; many, many organizations send checks to Planned Parenthood or fund embryonic stem cell research, both grave evils. United Way and the March for Dimes are two big supporters of the abortion lobby.
Make sure that you spend your money in a way that reflects your faith. I once heard that you can tell what someone worships by looking at how they use their wallet and their calendar. Ask yourself, are the things you buy helping you to become a better person? Or do they distract you from your journey with God? That means you definitely shouldn't have a Playboy subscription.
Work. not to become wealthy, but to support your family. Do not become blindsided by visions of yachts and Mercedes. There are cheaper ways to have fun on the water, and a used car can get you places just as easily. I'm not saying that you can't spend money on pleasures, just don't let the pursuit of such pleasures hinder you from loving your neighbors.
Use the money that you spare to help the poor. Eat out a little less so someone else can eat. Buy a less expensive car to give another man clothes to put on his back. Consider giving money to the Church. There are collections during Mass for a reason. The Catholic Church has very real material needs. There are churches to be built, parishes to be renovated, salaries to be paid, and programs to be funded. It's fallen out of popularity, but consider tithing to the Church.
The Gospel gives us a great role-model for a Christian attitude towards riches. Zacchaeus the tax collector, unlike the rich young man, makes the right response to Christ's call. He was a wealthy man, but he also took advantage of those he taxed. Tax collectors were already some of the most hated people in Jesus' time (not unlike today). Zacchaeus would have been even more despised by his countrymen. But one day, Jesus passed through his town. And Zacchaeus wanted to get a look at him, maybe he was curious about what this new rabbi had to say, maybe he had an authentic desire for something more than his life of sin, or maybe he just wanted to catch a glimpse of a celebrity.
Either way, being a short man, he climbed a tree to see Jesus. Now, Jesus came by, and much to Zacchaeus' surprise, He stopped and asks him to get down. Jesus wanted to dine with him. Our Lord did have a thing for breaking bread with sinners.
So Zacchaeus "came down quickly and received him with joy" (Luke 19:6). And when people expressed their anger that Jesus was eating with such an unclean man, Zacchaeus responded by saying "Behold, half of my possessions, Lord, I shall give to the poor, and if I have extorted anything from anyone I shall repay it four times over" (Luke 19:8). Without Jesus even asking it of him, Zacchaeus did what the rich young man could not. He rejected his riches so that they might not be a hindrance to following Christ. The Gospel does not say that he gave up everything that he had and become a monk. Instead, he gave significantly to the poor, made reparations to those he had wronged, and began to deal fairly with people. He embraced a life-style of secularity within his spiritual call to martyrdom.
I don't think its a coincidence that the story of Zacchaeus closely follows that of the rich young man in the Gospel according to Luke. The short sinner did what the "virtuous" young man could not. Which one will you be?
Brothers and sisters, remember that following Christ is so much more than donating you possessions or writing checks to charities. The real reason the rich young man could not follow Christ is that he was not following the greater commandment of "love your neighbor as yourself." If he had done so, he would have sold everything down to the clothes he was wearing to help his fellow men because Christ asked it of him. In our journey towards spiritual perfection, let us strive to an openness to the will of God, and a love for our fellow man that surpasses our love for riches.
DEUS VULT!
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