WHAT WENT WRONG?

Reflections on the Twenty-eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time: Wisdom 7:7-11; Hebrews 4:12-13; Mark 10:17-30

The rich man we meet in today’s gospel is perhaps the only one in all gospels who came to Jesus with a good intention and went back sad. What went wrong? He had always been a good and pious Jew and in his own words had “kept the commandments since his youth”. Mark even adds, “Jesus, looking at him, loved him”. How could this lovable rich man, who by all parameters, looked like a promising candidate to inherit eternal life then “go away sad” at the end of his meeting with Jesus?

No wonder the disciples murmured among themselves in astonishment, “Then who can be saved?” Jesus gave him the discipleship challenge: to go, sell all that he had, give them to the poor, and then come to follow Jesus. And he failed! What else could he have done differently since his youth? What could we do differently in our own discipleship challenge? The opening chapter of Christus vivit, the 2019 post-synodal apostolic exhortation that Pope Francis addressed “to young people and the entire people of God”, provides some interesting biblical models of youth that show us a better way.

1. Respond radically:

Biblical youngsters like Joseph the young dreamer (Genesis 37), King David (1 Samuel 16), and the wise young women of Matthew 25) show a remarkably radical openness in their encounter with God. Pope Francis insisted on the importance of this kind of openness when he said, “Every vocation – whether to marriage, consecrated life or the priesthood – begins with an encounter with Jesus who gives us new joy and hope” (General Audience, 30 August 2017). Each of these biblical models opened their lives to God when He chose to reveal Himself to them.

In their radical openness to God’s call, these youngsters discovered their real identity, self-worth, and the importance of God’s plan for them. The first reading reminds us of the kind of radical openness that should orient our preferences, discernment process, and choices in discipleship. As the rich man’s path crossed with Jesus, who was himself “setting out on a journey”, their encounter promised to have all the potential to create yet another biblical model of a perfect disciple. However, the rich man fails to open himself radically to the single most important encounter of his lifetime.

2. Embrace change: 

Christus vivit quotes the examples of Solomon (1 Samuel 6), Jeremiah (Jer 1), the younger son (Luke 15), St Paul (Colossians 3), and the son of the widow (Luk 7) as biblical models of youth who did not hesitate to take up the discipleship challenge to start anew. God, in his encounters with them, invites them to conversion, change of heart, transformation in their lifestyle, and a journey from their ‘older selves’ to their newer ‘younger selves’. The grace of conversion enabled them to embrace the challenge of a new beginning.

Discipleship requires us to embrace the youthful spirit of revival, vitality, learning, and the willingness to consistently and efficiently change. The rich man wanted the gift of eternal life but wasn’t prepared to pay its cost. When Jesus points out ‘the one thing lacking in him’, he decides to quit. He fails the challenge to leave his comfort zone, step out of his familiar world, revisit his plans and projects, and the difficult part of letting go of his former self to encounter the new and the strange.

3. Commit courageously: 

Gideon (Judges 6), the young Jewish servant girl (2 Kings 5) and young Ruth (Ruth 4) are other youngsters that Christus vivit quotes as symbols of the courage of the youth to question established norms, revisit customs, critique the status quo, and intervene with audacity when others would normally choose not to commit. The rich man did not own his possessions. On the contrary, his possessions owned him. He wasn’t free enough to commit himself courageously to his new beckoning.

Saint Augustine says, "If you would attain to what you are not yet, you must always be displeased by what you are. For where you are pleased with yourself there you have remained. Keep adding, keep walking, keep advancing". The second reading reminds us that the alive and active Word of God penetrates, cuts through, and reveals our innermost selves so we can be free to commit ourselves to God’s call. Peter reminds Jesus, “We have given up everything and followed you” probably expecting a guarantee of a future reward in return for their commitment. Jesus interestingly promises not only a much greater return of relationships and possessions but also persecutions.

May what went wrong with the rich man inspire us to respond radically to God’s encounter, embrace change, quit our petty shells and prisons, and commit ourselves to the mission of freedom, life, and love.