He went away... ~ A Reflection on the Twenty-eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Twenty-eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time (B)

Wis 7:7-11

Ps 90:12-13, 14-15, 16-17

Heb 4:12-13

Mk 10:17-30

Sadly, the young man in Mark's Gospel walked away from Jesus.  He realized that even though he had kept the commandments and had done all that was required of him as far as Jewish law was concerned, there was something missing.  This young man had wealth, status, family and connections.  He was a good man... Mark writes that Jesus looked at him and loved him for who he was.  And because Jesus loved him, he asked that the young man become more than who he was already.  He asked the young man to follow him.  To give up the life he was leading for the sake of the gospel.

What an unexpected turn of events that must have been!  The young man might have wanted Jesus to praise him and assure him that he had already inherited eternal life because of the righteous life he was leading... But Jesus' request that the young man sell what he had and give it away made him realize that he loved his life even more than he had expected.  The young man was not able to give up the security he had in his life.  He could not bring himself to trust God to take care of him if he gave up everything to follow Jesus.  Instead of viewing his wealth as a gift from God, the young man saw it as a possession.  When it became a possession, his wealth turned into a burden that he could not give up.  And so he went away.

How often do we find ourselves in a similar situation.  How often do we let our possessions become burdens that keep us from coming closer to the heart of God.  Those "possessions" may not even be wealth or status or position.  The possessions that burden us could be bad habits that are hard to break, anger that we inflict on others, our attitudes of superiority and pride that belittle others... everyday actions that show us that we have drifted away from the path that leads to eternal life.  Jesus is asking us to lay those burdens down...  to give up those kinds of "possessions" so that our minds and hearts are in tune with him.  So that we can follow him.

This is not easy.  Even the disciples questioned among themselves:  "Then who can be saved?"  when Jesus told them how hard it was for those who had wealth to enter the kingdom of heaven.  But Jesus also said that anyone who puts aside those possessions for his sake and for the sake of the gospel, would gain eternal life in the age to come.

We ask God for wisdom of heart, as the psalmist did, so that we can see God's work and his glory.  We ask the Lord for the grace and courage to lay our burdens down; and we pray, "may the gracious care of the Lord our God be ours." (Ps 90)

And it will be...



 ~ Image Source: For He Had Great Possessions by George Frederic Watts, 1894