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The Rich Young Man
Oct
11
Written by:
Sunday, October 11, 2009
The Rich Young Man
Pastor’s Column
28th Sunday Ordinary Time
October 11, 2009
The story of the rich young man in this Sunday’s gospel is haunting indeed (Mark 10:17-30). Here was a man who truly loved God. We know this because Scripture says the man had kept the commandments from his youth. He wants to do more for God. He runs up to Jesus: What more must I do to inherit eternal life?
This is a detail that occurs only once in Mark’s gospel! Jesus looks steadily at this man and loves him. Here is an eyewitness account. The disciples must have marveled at Christ’s firm gaze at this man. The rich young man had loved God all his life – because he kept the commandments -- and now here is God, in the flesh, gazing steadily at him and loving him in return. And Jesus looks at us in exactly the same way when we strive to please him by trying to do what he actually tells us to do!
How do I know I love God? Is it a matter of feelings? No. Every time I try to keep the commandments of God I am actually loving God. In fact, the more in love I am with God, the more I will strive to do battle with sin in my life. Saint Ignatius Loyola lived by a rule of life that he called his first degree of humility: that he would prefer to suffer up to the point of death rather than commit a mortal sin. Can you say that? Even if you can’t, God is pleased with us when we struggle to do the right thing, even when we don’t always succeed, because we are struggling to love God in the concrete reality of our daily lives, and not in our elusive and ever-changing feelings.
Relying on our feelings to gauge how we are doing in the spiritual life is like building on quicksand: you can never really know where you are. It is my willingness to confess my sins and repent of them that demonstrates my love for God. No matter how often we fall, it is the act of getting up and trying again, over and over, that demonstrates our love for God.
Can you imagine Jesus looking steadily at you and loving you? He does this whenever we persevere in prayer, especially when we are before the Blessed Sacrament (whether we “feel” anything or not!). He does this when we commit ourselves, once again, in the struggle to do good and avoid evil in our lives. But he will also challenge us to greater perfection. He will encourage us to go higher and to take risks for him, to give generously and live fully for him, because he knows we have only this short lifetime to offer to God treasures from the riches that we have, to strive to follow his commandments, and thus, to truly love him.
Father Gary
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