Word to the Wise
Monday, August 18, 2025 - Monday in the 29th Week in Ordinary Time
[Rom 4:20-25 and Luke 12:13-21]A young man approached Jesus and said, "Teacher, what good must I do to gain eternal life?" He answered him, "...If you wish to enter into life, keep the commandments." ....."The young man said to him, "All of these I have observed, what do I still lack?" Jesus said to him, "If you wish to be perfect, go, sell what you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me." When the young man heard this statement, he went away sad, for he had many possessions. [Matthew]
This scene is one that I have encountered over and over again in my years as a campus minister. The experience began, however, with my own as an undergraduate student in the early 1960's. There were a lot of students in the dorm where I lived who were far wealthier than I, but they did not seem to me to be very happy people. Listening to them and hearing what they wanted made me think, in the words of the song from the musical SWEET CHARITY, "There's gotta be something better than this!" That idea was one of the factors that led me to consider religious life.
Although this passage is often used in vocational discernment for religious life or priesthood, it can apply to the experience of marriage or single life as well. Can there be more to the life of faith than simply following the Ten Commandments and precepts of the Church? In grade school, we were taught about the six "Spiritual Works of Mercy" and the six "Corporal Works of Mercy." Those can certainly add to the life of "following Jesus," but the scene from the gospel is a demand for a reordering of priorities. It is more than "paying one's dues" and "following the rules." It is a conscious dedication to following Jesus. The "imitation of Christ" movement of the 14th century or the "What would Jesus do?" movement of the 1970's seem to capture some of this. In the gospel scene, Jesus challenges the young man to look more closely at his life to see what might be contributing to the emptiness he was experiencing. In this case it was possessions. If we identify with the question the young man asked, are we prepared to do the discernment that Jesus challenges us to do? AMEN