Twenty-eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time
This gospel story of the rich young man needs to be understood well before we can interpret it for our personal and community life today. If we begin with the premise that the only way we can individually and collectively follow Jesus is by selling everything and giving it to the poor, then we are making it impossible for us to follow Jesus. Let us then look at this passage realistically. First, this rich young man’s refusal to follow Jesus comes from his unwillingness to adopt the simple and itinerant life-style that Jesus lived. Jesus invitation to this rich young man to be an itinerant disciple like the rest Jesus disciples is very different than the invitation that Jesus gives to us. Society and the way social life is conducted these days leaves very little option for people like us to adopt an itinerant life-style. Second, the economic setting within which Jesus functioned is very different than manner in which our economic affairs are conducted. To compromise health and its insurance, safety and security of our loved ones and not paying for the utilities and services provided for us would at best be irresponsible. Having presented these two caveats, there is something important we should know. The entire gospel of Mark is written from the perspective of discipleship. This is not my personal opinion but scripture scholars tell us that Mark’s primary purpose apart from telling us the story of Jesus is to give the readers a lesson in discipleship. Mark wants his audience to know that discipleship involves throwing one’s entire weight behind Jesus. The fact that we cannot be itinerant followers of Jesus and that our economic life-style differs from Jesus’ times does not take away the radicalness and urgency of the call to being disciples.
I think there are some enduring lessons that this passage gives to us.
- Discipleship is a conscious decision. When I look at my life, I see three very clear stages in my spiritual growth. For the first nineteen years I knew Catholicism as a religion. There were daily family prayers, Sunday masses, weekly devotion and numerous hours of service at the parish. That year faith became more personal at a very powerful retreat. God became real, Christ became personal and I discovered the meaning behind the nineteen years of cradle Catholicism. It was only later when I was twenty-four that I became conscious of the call the discipleship. This happened in a classroom setting where the professor asked us to write our epitaph. I wrote something silly but the seminarian sitting next to me wrote: “Here lies a DISCIPLE.” It was then that discipleship became a quest, a goal, a conscious decision, and a life-style for me. I think something similar happened to the rich young man. He followed the commandments but that seemed insufficient; he came face-to-face with Christ and he desire to follow even more closely; and then came the time to make a conscious decision about discipleship. If there is one thing I want to emphasize today, it is this – that discipleship is a conscious decision.
- There are enduring lessons in this passage. I said earlier that Mark’s entire gospel is written from the perspective of discipleship. The story of the rich young man provides a lesson in the rejection of the call to discipleship. Mark does not hesitate to provide the very specific reason for the rejection of the call – it was the rich young man’s possession. The New Testament in general teaches us to be very cautious about our relationship with wealth. Materialism has the potential to blind us. But materialism is not the only obstacle to discipleship. Discipleship takes discipline; discipleship takes hard work; discipleship makes a person completely refocus their priorities; discipleship makes us questions our pious religious practices; discipleship takes us beyond religious practices to discovering the meaning behind what we do; discipleship requires commitment and dedication; to be a disciple means that thinking like Jesus, talking like Jesus and acting like Jesus become instinctive. For any of these reasons someone may choose to be content with following the commandments or engage in religion like the rich young man. We, on other hand are being invited to take that radical step, to put our entire life behind Jesus, to follow Jesus closely in the way he think, talks and acts.
- Live life with the eschatological vision. Mark’s gospel is the only passage where the reward for radical steps in disciples pays off in the end. Those who give up everything are promised a hundred times as much. Is Mark trying to entice his readers to radical discipleship? I do not think that is what Mark’s intention is because he includes persecution as a reward as well. I think that Mark is saying is that a disciple has a vision that is different from the ordinary person. What sets disciples apart from the rest is they live their lives with one eye eternity. Disciple always their epitaph in mind. Disciples always keep eternity in focus. Disciples always live with their feet on the ground and eyes on eternity.
- Fr. Satish Joseph