The fact of the matter is, the rich man in our Gospel today was not truly living the First Commandment in the deepest depths of his heart

28th Sunday in Ordinary Time. October 11th, 2009
When we truly listen to Jesus' words in the Gospel and let them sink in, we discover that the demands of the Gospel are high. But today, Jesus seems to ask of us the impossible: “Go, sell all that you have and give to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.” When we read this passage, if we look closely and honestly we can see something of ourselves in this rich young man.
Most of us have grown up Christian and we have been taught the Ten Commandments from our childhood. So, I think it’s easy for us to be very sympathetic with this young man. After all, he seems to show generosity- he seems to have a good and right intention- he certainly asks a wonderful question- what must I do to inherit eternal life? How many today, unlike this young man, just presume they are going to heaven and so don’t even bother to ask the question?
I think most of us would say that this young man is good and surely should be able to enter eternal life. However, Jesus’ response to him should be a shocker to us, Jesus says, “No! You have not yet done everything necessary to inherit eternal life…One thing is lacking, go, sell all that you have and follow me.” After Jesus’ response to this young rich man, I think it’s easy for us to feel rather despondent. I think this is natural. It seems that following the ten rules should be good enough. These demands of Jesus seem to be unreasonable… I think, this points out a common tendency, a common way of thinking for us Christians.
In other words, I think it’s easy for us Christians to think like the following, “I am a good person, after all I haven’t murdered anyone, I haven’t robbed a bank. I try to go to Mass on Sunday, although those Holy days are just a bit too inconvenient for me. I may lie, but usually its only little whites ones. And I put my dollar in the collection plate when it comes around.” Unfortunately, with this attitude, we simply make lists of the good things we’ve done and so try to justify ourselves before God. However, the fact of the matter it, this type of attitude does not require faith at all. Even an atheist can say it is wrong to kill or to steal. Living just by a set of rules is not living faith.
True Faith requires us to ascent fully to the person of God in Jesus and to follow His Commands, which come to us through His Church, the Catholic Church that is. And to follow them, because we love Jesus and His Church. The Ten Commands are not just a minimal list to follow, but are only the beginning of a greater list of the Ten Beatitudes—those things that by doing would perfect us in love: and as a consequence, give us true happiness and freedom. (A husband hopefully says he will follow the Fifth Commandment with regards to his wife, that is he would kill her, but if he loves her is love will go far, far beyond just not killing her). And so measuring ourselves and our actions against a list of rules can be helpful, but it is not in and of itself love…for we just cannot justify ourselves before God.
This is the problem with this young man. He tries to justify Himself before God. He says, “I have done all these since my youth.” How many of us can say the same. However, Jesus says in a word, “no, you cannot justify yourself in front of me, only God is good, only God can justify. You have done only those things that every human being should do, whether he or she believes in me or not. Even the pagans can do as much.” Jesus then goes straight to the root- “You must sell everything and follow me.” Ouch! Everything? Everything!
Jesus reveals the truth of the matter; this young man had never really given himself to God. He really didn’t trust God and so he trusted in himself and adopted the “following--the--rules--type--of--behavior in order not to be punished. He really lacked true faith. This of course is very minimalist and definitely does not show love. For example, a husband may not have cheated on his wife or killed her, but does he love her? Is he willing, better yet, has he given himself completely to her, faithfully serving her in love?
So yes, the rich young man may have lived a good moral life, but he failed to realize, that Christ was calling him to not just live a moral life (to be good), but to live a life of faith, through a total self-giving love. Living a moral life is absolutely necessary, yes...but love demands more, it demands our everything—our whole self.
True love demands a complete giving of one’s self to the beloved, a mutual total self-offering of one to the other. What woman wants a husband who will only give himself partway to her? Love holds nothing back, it gives all away to the beloved. Jesus' demand on the young rich man and on us, goes far beyond just giving away material wealth. Jesus wants us to give away much more than our riches, He wants us to give away ourselves, all of our love—absolutely everything=TO HIM!!! This is the essence of true adoration and love of God--of faith.
Jesus doesn’t demand that each of us immediately give up all our material possessions (we of course need some of these things to live) nor does He expect all of us to become a religious and live in a monastery. But He does, however, demand that we give him everything in an act of adoration and that we use our wealth in such away that we do not forget the heavenly Father who gave us these possessions, showing Him our love and gratitude by sharing what He gave us, our wealth with those who are less fortunate than we. He expects for each one of us to give up our wealth in this way; to give up thinking that we are independent, that we possess everything we need apart from God, to give up our pride, our hearts of stone, our opinions, what we think is right, what we want, getting our own way, and most importantly to give up, in fact to sacrifice, our self will. In this, Jesus wants us to become poor in spirit, realizing that everything, everything we possess is a gift—even our faith, even our very existence; a gift we are to offer back to God with no strings attached.
Today, Jesus is calling each one of us today to this type of love and faith. Today, Jesus is calling each of us to return the gift of our life, our very existence back to God the Father, in a sacrifice of love, through Jesus Himself, the only man who is truly Good, because he is God himself among us.
The gifts we receive from God are so vast and so generous. There will come the day however, when every single one of us, no matter how much or how little we possess, will have to do even in a material way what Jesus asks; someday we will definitely have to give away even our material possessions. Each one of us we will have to give up everything we have at death, we can take nothing material with us. The only thing that we can take with us is our love for Christ or sadly our lack there of—the amount of love we possess at the end of our life, is the amount we posses for all eternity; we will only enjoy heaven to the degree that we have given our love to Jesus, or for some, maybe not enjoy heaven at all; this should give us cause for reflection....
We like the young rich man can not justify ourselves, for God alone can justify us. The truth is in the end we are all poor, we are all sinners and in need of redemption and salvation through the blood of the cross. While it is true we will not be saved without good works, without following the Ten Commandments, our good deeds alone will not save us, only Jesus and His love can save us. But for our part, we have to detach ourselves from our self sufficiently and our stuff, and ask, beg Jesus for the grace to attach ourselves to Him, love Him above all things and trust in Him alone..
We can be tempted to become discouraged (for we too like the rich young man have many possession), but we should not let our face fall, give up hope and walk away sad. One of the Fathers of the Church, commenting on this passage, said that he believed that this rich young man of today's Gospel, may have been none other than St. John himself, before his conversion. St. John walk away sad, but as he walked away began to reflect where true riches are really found. St. John later repented, and in true faith sold all that he had and gave it to the poor and then came back to follow Jesus fully, giving his life totally and completely to God in loving sacrifice, remaining with Jesus faithfully even to the foot of the cross; the only one of the first twelve bishops to remain completely faithful. John shows us that the Power of God's Grace, which is the power of His Love, can indeed transform us, can indeed turn our hearts of stone into hearts for love alone. Be not afraid, when we give all we have to Jesus, we lose nothing of ourselves but gain everything in the end, because we gain Jesus Himself, our only true treasure.
Let us end with this prayer:
"Heavenly Father, I thank You that my family has enough and more than enough. Help us use our possessions according to Your wishes. Help us to share with those who have little or nothing. Help us to support Your work in the world. Help us to put our trust in You and not in our bank book. Help us to be gracious with others as You have been generous with us." But most importantly, with the power of the Holy Spirit, help us at this Holy Mass to offer it all back to you, along with our hearts, everything we have and are, on this altar of sacrifice in union with the Heart of your Son Jesus Christ. Through the Immaculate Virgin Mary, Help us to open our hearts and souls to receive Jesus fully when we receive Him in Holy Communion. Then we will possess the greatest of all riches you our God and Jesus Your only Son in the unity and love of the Holy Spirit..the treasure of heaven even while we still walk on this earth. Amen.
It is the Holy Mass that makes it possible for us to offer ourselves in Love to God; It is the Holy Mass which makes it possible to live this offering of love because it is the source of all grace. Let us offer this prayer as we offer the bread and wine asking our Father to accept our sacrifice of our riches, our hearts, our self wills, along with the sacrifice of His Son which He has of course already accepted. Pray brethren that my sacrifice and yours may be acceptable to God the Father the Almighty. Our Lady of the poor in spirit, pray for us. God bless you.