413. Twenty-eighth Sunday of Ordinary Time (B)

Meditations no. 614 (unofficial computer-aided translation)

Raise the possibility of following the Lord with those who can.

IN THE Gospel passage of this Sunday’s Mass, St. Mark recounts Jesus’ encounter with a young man who shows a good disposition. As he was about to set out, someone came running and knelt before him and asked him, “Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”

As then, even today many young people experience a similar concern. They ask themselves what they should do with the gift of their own existence, which they are beginning to know more deeply and to possess in a more responsible and conscious way. They talk to each other about these questions, sometimes without having someone well prepared with whom to expand deeply and not in a merely theoretical way. On many occasions they glimpse the figure of Christ through a person they have known and who tries to be consistent with the faith. For these cases, which may arise, we ask now for the grace to know how to behave like Jesus, to be ready to listen and help souls to encounter him.

Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good but only one: God. 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 anyone, honor your father and mother.” “Master, I have kept all this since my adolescence,” he answered. And Jesus fixed his gaze on him and was captivated by him.

Christ looks with special affection at this young man who seems so well disposed and reminds him of the divine law of love of God and neighbor. That person has tried to live those commandments received through the family and in the synagogue, but his heart senses that perhaps there is something more, something important that he has not yet discovered. And the Lord continues: one thing is missing: go, sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come and follow me.

In some cases, more or less numerous depending on the environment and countries, young girls or boys come to each one of us, with that hunger for truth and love, with a clean adolescent life. With Christ’s eyes we look at these people with affection and we pray for them, also so that the Holy Spirit may enkindle them even more and so that we may know how to transmit to them - in the most appropriate way in each case - the Master’s response. If the Lord, in his Providence, we can tell you, has guided you with such affection in these first years of your youth, it is a sign that he wants to give you even more and that he wants you very close to him: go and follow him.

At other times the family environment or situation has led young people and young people to and fro for a few years, until they have rediscovered Jesus. Many devote considerable energy to serving others in volunteer activities, for a certain time, but it is difficult for them to give themselves unreservedly and forever; it is difficult for them - in the words of our Father - to bet everything on a single card, the card of God’s Love. They are full of projects for the future, rich in small comforts offered by the welfare society, full of physical energy used in sports and in so many other activities, but they do not see beyond.

We have often meditated on the reaction of that young man: but he, afflicted by these words, went away sad, because he had many possessions. We should not be surprised that the same reaction is sometimes repeated, on the part of people who at first glance are well disposed. Even now Jesus Christ knows how to demand, to place men before their duties, running the risk of not being heard (…). Qui contristatus in verbo abiit maerens (Mk 10:22), that adolescent went away sad, because the word of God - when it is not accepted - becomes bitter as gall.

We can help them to be magnanimous if they see us as joyful, faithful to the commitment that unites us to God. Perhaps a greater generosity on our part, reflected in the gaudium cum pace of vocation, will be a decisive element for them to decide to follow the Lord, if he calls them.

Do not be discouraged because there are people who do not respond.

THERE ARE people who are apparently well disposed, with the conditions to follow God’s call, who when we set high goals for them, they back down. It is time to keep in mind some words of our Father. Be clear. If they tell you that you are going “to catch them,” answer yes, that is what you want. … But … , don’t worry! Because if they don’t have a vocation-if He doesn’t call them-they won’t come; and if they do, what an embarrassment to end up like the rich young man in the Gospel: lonely and sad.

Jesus’ sorrow, his disappointment at the rich young man’s response, is manifested aloud to the disciples: looking around, he said to his disciples, “How difficult it is for those who have riches to enter the kingdom of God!” At the Master’s explanation, the disciples were impressed by his words. And speaking to them again, he said, “Children, how difficult it is to enter the kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.” And they were even more astonished, saying to one another, “Then who can be saved?”

Among the twelve Apostles, all but one feel happy at the side of Jesus, sharing his proclamation of the Kingdom of God and the invitation to convert, witnessing closely the miracles of the Master, in the midst of destitution. But, like so many other Jews of the time, they continue to consider wealth as a sign of divine predilection. However, they knew the words of the Book of Wisdom that are proposed to us today in the First Reading. They express the choice of wisdom made by Solomon, when the Lord invited him to ask him whatever he wanted. He did not beg to be granted power, riches, or honors. I begged for prudence - this is the request that the sacred book puts on its lips - and it was granted; I invoked a spirit of wisdom, and it came to me. I put it before scepters and thrones and, compared to it, I had nothing in wealth. The most precious stone does not equal it, because, in the sight of it, all gold is a little sand, and before it silver is worth as much as clay. I loved it more than health and beauty, and I preferred to have it as a light, because its radiance has no sunset. With it came all my goods at once, for in its hands there is incalculable wealth.

That young man did not make his calculations correctly: the wisdom of being with the Lord, like the Apostles, was infinitely more valuable than power, wealth, health, strength or beauty, which in youth - and also in middle age - can appear to be the most important. In his scales weighed more those outdated goods, which, compared to the divine vocation, are sand, clay, nothing. “He did not know how to procure that one thing that only the Savior can give, necessary to obtain the eternal life he desired; and he went away sad, discouraged, before the demands of that eternal life for which reason he had come to ask the Master.”

With human eyes, my children, St. Josemaría commented, this was the great occasion of commitment. What other things could be desired, so that this rich and influential young man would join the group of Christ’s followers? Jesus’ answer, however, could not be more than one, because there is no room for compromise in doctrine, even though compromise seems to achieve apostolic results; the Lord’s answer is full of affection (…), but it is clear, emphatic, and unambiguous.

Earthly goods have a relative, instrumental value. However, we all have the tendency to put them first, and then they become an obstacle to achieving a truly fulfilled life. Our Father helps us to raise our gaze: Why drink from the pools of worldly consolations if you can quench your thirst in waters that spring up to eternal life? Earthly things can never satisfy the aspirations of the heart, nor fulfill what God expects of each person. Happiness comes from God. To the Apostles’ question about the difficulty of entering the Kingdom of Heaven, Jesus, with his gaze fixed on them, said to them: It is impossible for men, but not for God; for with God everything is possible. The Master invites them to have confidence in the infinite love of the Father who has sent them and in the assistance of the Holy Spirit, who will remain with them forever.

Fruits of surrender to God: a hundredfold and eternal life.

IN THE face of Jesus’ teaching, the Apostles want to see more clearly the meaning of their own self-giving. If it is impossible for men to be saved, is there any use in the effort to follow the Lord? Peter explains it simply: You see that we have left everything and followed you. Jesus answered, “Truly I say to you, there is no one who has left house, brothers or sisters, mother or father, or children or fields for my sake and for the gospel, who does not receive in this world a hundred times more in houses, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and fields, with persecutions; and, in the age to come, eternal life. For many first will be last, and many last will be first.

Our Father comments on this answer in The Way. Jesus says: “And whoever leaves house or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or inheritances for my name’s sake will receive a hundredfold and possess eternal life.”

“Let’s see if you can find, on earth, someone who pays so generously!”

To follow the Lord with total surrender does not imply a renunciation or a sacrifice, but a great joy at the gift of accompanying Jesus so closely. It is good to give glory to God, without taking anticipations (wife, children, honors …) of that glory, which we will fully enjoy with Him in Life …

Moreover, He is generous. … He gives a hundredfold: and this is true even of children. Many deprive themselves of them for His glory, and have thousands of children of His spirit. “Children, as we are of the Our Father, who is in heaven.”

Faithful, it is worthwhile, we sing often, following the words of our Father. If there are difficulties, the greater are the joys. In this Gospel account, Jesus speaks of the hundredfold already in this life: a hundred times more in houses, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and fields. And he adds: with persecutions. Saint Paul transmits to Timothy his experience, which is like his spiritual testament: you, on the other hand, have followed me in doctrine, in conduct, in plans, in faith, in patience, in charity and in constancy; in persecutions and sufferings such as those that befell me in Antioch, Iconus and Lystra: what persecutions I suffered, and the Lord delivered me from them all. Moreover, all those who want to live piously in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.

Sometimes we can lose sight of reality. You lack “vibration.” “That is why you drag so few along.” “It seems as if you are not very convinced of what you gain by leaving those things of the earth for Christ.”

Compare: a hundredfold and eternal life! “Do you think the”business” is small?

Jesus’ dialogue with the young man is an ever-timely teaching for all Christians. It helps us to see that it is worthwhile to accompany the Lord, and that self-giving always makes us happy. We read it today in the second reading. Certainly, the Word of God is living and effective, and sharper than a double-edged sword: it penetrates to the division of soul and spirit, of joints and marrow, and discovers the feelings and thoughts of the heart. There is no invisible creature before it, but everything is naked and evident in the eyes of the One to whom we must give an account.

Our Holy Mother Mary received a humanly overwhelming mission. Her great trust in the Lord, her faith in the divine Word meditated on so many times, moved her to trust in her Father God. May she remind us all that it is worth it.