The Desire for Something More

“As Jesus was setting out on a journey, a man ran up, knelt down before Him, and asked Him good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” Matthew’s gospel which also adds some details, that Mark’s gospel here that we have today doesn’t say, says that this is a young man, and he is drawn to Jesus. You know, he’s sensing something that’s special in Jesus. He says good teacher. There’s a lot of teachers today even you know, he doesn’t trust perhaps all the teachers, or maybe he doesn’t trust all the rabbis, he doesn’t all the scribes. He doesn’t trust them all. Just like, you know, many people find in the past is that the Church persons that they don’t really trust, but he’s drawn to Jesus. And he thinks that Jesus is a good teacher, a one who can really answer the most important questions that he has, these deep questions and something about Jesus raises these deep questions. Maybe this is a man who can give me something solid, that I can count on about the most important thing, which is eternal life. And so, for a moment, you know, he probably has a lot of things going on in his life, but the presence of Jesus draws him back to this most important thing, about eternal life. And what he doesn’t realize is that what seems to him is probably like a chance encounter, is actually an encounter of the soul, the soul of this young man, with God Himself, God Himself present in Jesus. And so, this gospel is the very rich example of this great drama, that’s in each one of our lives, your personal encounter with the Lord. And so, Jesus gives him a very clear response, while you know the commandment, obey the commandments. And a response to teacher all of these I’ve observed from my youth. And Matthew’s Gospel, adds something else. He says, “What do I still lack?”  He’s been obeying the commandments, but he senses that there’s something more. The words of Jesus, the presence of Jesus, have awakened in him a desire for something more, not just through the minimum, but for something more. The second reading we heard today from the letter to the Hebrews is speaking about, the piercing penetration of the Word of God. It says, “the Word of God is living and effective, sharper than any two-edged sword, penetrating even between soul and spirit, joints and marrows, and able to discern reflections and thoughts of the heart.” And so, it seems like this young man has experienced this penetration of the word of Jesus, penetrating into him. Have you ever sensed sometimes and where you sense like a call to something deeper? What more do I lack, a desire to seek for something deeper, and maybe it’s only passing, maybe that desire for something deeper, there can be moments, maybe moments of grace when we feel that call, in a special way. And this passage from the Hebrews is as an invitation to let the Word of God act in us. Even right now that this Sunday, let the word of God as we meditate on an act in us, as we take some time to meditate on this passage, let it also penetrate into myself personally, and let it act. And even sometimes cutting bonds, freeing me from attachments. So this is a young man, and St. john Paul in 1985, wrote a profound meditation to a letter to youth based precisely on this gospel, and where he made the point that that youth itself is a richness. And as we get older, we realize that more than just that, because as a young person, you have your energy, and you have your future ahead of you. That’s a richness that all young persons have. So, this has a special meaning for young people at that point in their life, when they’re deciding what you’re going to do, when you’re choosing the orientation of your life. But it’s not just for young people. There’s a teaching in this for all of us. Each person’s encounter with the Lord is unique. The Lord encounters each one of us in a different way, each one of us have a different life path that the Lord has called us on. And so, each one is different. But there’s still things that we can learn from the encounter of Jesus with this young man. So, one of the things we see here in the Gospel is that this is a moment of grace, of opportunity.  Not every moment in your life is equal. There are moments, which are special moments of grace, opportunity, and decision. And I think actually our humanity, and our Church is living through one of those right now. And these difficult times that we’re living, what the young man, the young man probably felt that this was just a chance he happened to see Jesus, he probably heard it before. Now, he happened to run into Jesus, he was traveling, and Jesus was traveling. But what he didn’t realize is that Jesus had been waiting for this opportunity, had been waiting for this moment, and had been waiting for this moment in which he would ask this question, because Jesus oftentimes has to wait on us, wait till we’re ready, till that young man finally says, “What more? Do I What do I still lack? What more do I need? What more is there?”  And so oftentimes, we’re not ready for the Lord, despite sometimes we say the Lord’s not responding to me. But sometimes He’s not responding, because we’re not ready yet for the answer. And He has to wait. And so this is a moment of grace, a moment of opportunity. Because again, there are moments of opportunity in our life that the Lord gives us, moments of choice, of decision. And depending on what we do at those moments, a lot changes. Youth is a special time for that. But remember the gospel of the workers who come at different hours, and we have so many examples in Scripture, where even people at much later stages in their life, make a decisive choice of the Lord. So, it can be happening at any time. So, the Gospel says something very, very simple, but with great depth, that says, “Jesus, looking at him, loved him.” Jesus, looking at him, loved him. And so, what is behind those words? Behind those words is the greatest possible treasure. Everything that the human person desires, the deepest desires that the human person can have, is found in Jesus.  As St. Paul says, “all the riches of the Divinity are found in Jesus.” So, everything that this young man is seeking, even though he doesn’t realize it, is found in this Jesus, and this Jesus is looking at him with love. That is this young man is not just a face in the crowd for Jesus. Jesus has a special personal love for him. And that’s one of the key discoveries in life to realize that you are not a face in the crowd for Jesus, that Jesus is looking personally at you with love. We think He sees a bunch of other people and can’t spend too much time with you, but He can. So, He is always looking at you, as if you were the only person who existed. Jesus is looking at you with love. And that’s like at the very core of the revelation, of our Christian revelation, that the Lord is looking at you personally. And not with wrath, or with just as an angry judge, but with love, always with love. Because that’s what He is. Just like the sun, the sun can’t give coldness and darkness. The sun only gives light and heat because that’s what it is. And Jesus only gives love. He punishes sometimes, but He always acts with love. And so everything flows from that love of Jesus. All glory, all abundance, all the possible fruitfulness of life, and all grace, and we’re going to come back to this grace. So, in that simple phrase, “Jesus looked at him with love,” is everything that this young man could desire everything, the greatest possible riches, rich beyond any imagining. And so, Jesus, then out of that love says, “if you want to be perfect,” that is Jesus has waited for him to take the initiative, take the initiative of saying, What more do I still lack? And then Jesus, “if you want to be perfect,” that is in response to the question, to desire that you’re expressing, to go beyond the minimum, to be all that God created you for, to fulfill the mission that God created you for, as we would say, today to realize your full potential. But it’s not just human potential, it’s a potential that you don’t even know is in you. Because God has hidden it in you, and only God can realize that potential. Best to be, as Matthew Kelly says, the best version of yourself, if you want to be perfect, he says, “You are lacking in one thing. Go and sell what you have, and give to the poor. And you will have treasure in heaven.” Jesus doesn’t ask this of everyone.  In the Gospel, we don’t see Him asking that of everyone. But to this young man who is asking him this question, Jesus wants to free him from the idol, the idol that’s holding him back, the obstacle that’s holding him. That’s blocking him from his response. So, He invites him to make a sacrifice of that, and give it to the poor, make a gift of his life. And He says, “you will have a treasure in heaven.”  So, Jesus doesn’t want to take away from this young man, you could say Jesus giving him financial investment advice. You know, this is the best way, you can spend your riches right now, that you have right now, and you’re gaining infinite eternal riches in heaven. So that’s great financial advice, right? It’s a guaranteed, you know, 1000 million percent return on your investment, if we want to look at it that way. So Jesus, not wanting to take away, Jesus wanting to give him a treasure in heaven, which will last forever and beyond anything that he could give, be anything that the young man to give. So, it’s a very intelligent, wise response. But it’s also very challenging. And then Jesus says, “and then come, follow me.” So what, what does Jesus want him to do? Jesus is inviting him, to be with Him, to be with Jesus, to be with God, to be a special friend of Jesus. And that’s all that the human person is created for, is to be united to God. And Jesus is giving him this opportunity, you can do this, this opportunity, which is beyond anything that humans could hope for, you can do it. I’m giving you I’m inviting you to this, I’m inviting you to come share my life. But that path, which in heaven will be forever, infinite joy.  We know it begins as a very hard path, the path of the cross, of humiliation and suffering and sacrifice, and so, it’s hard. Just like some investments, right? You don’t know. I mean, it’s hard to give things up, even though I know in the future might have a good response. So, Jesus is calling him, is giving him an opportunity, but it’s a very challenging opportunity, too.  So, what happens, this young man has to make a decision, and nobody else can make that decision for him. Just the way, each one of us, God respects your freedom and no one can make that decision for you. Each one of us has to decide how we’re going to respond to the Lord, to the call to follow Him, to be with Him, to be His special friend. And so, what happens, and it’s sad, it says at that statement, his face fell. It’s a very, very strong expression, his face fell and he goes away sad, so he’s turning away from Jesus. That’s never a good thing, is turning away from Jesus.  It doesn’t say, but he’s so happy because he still has all his stuff. It says, he goes away, sad, he still has all his riches, but he’s sad. It says he went away sad.  Listen to what it says, “he went away sad, for he had many possessions.” Doesn’t that sound kind of funny. People spend all their life chasing possessions to be happy. And this says he went away sad, because he had many possessions. That doesn’t say you went away sad, because he was poor. It says he went away sad because he had many possessions, because these possessions were keeping him from responding to Jesus. And so instead of giving them happiness, they were causing sadness. So, riches, of course, are not just material things, but they can be all sorts of things. That can be relationships, they can be talents, they can be all sorts of things. And so how can we respond, because each one of us has some richness in our life, different types of just the richness of our own life is a richness. And we’re often very attached to those riches. So, it seemed like a great thing to be with Jesus in heaven, but it’s also very hard to give up and follow. I said, it’s very hard. Jesus doesn’t say it’s very hard. He says, it’s impossible. He says, “for man, it’s impossible.” Not hard, impossible. So just give up. And that’s the message of my homily. Just give up. That’s my message for this week. It’s impossible, just give up. Sorry. You’re onto the richest, because that’s the best it’s going to get. So well, no, there’s a little bit more to that, that it doesn’t say, says for man, it’s impossible. But that’s a good thing, “but not for God, for God all things are possible.” That is, if we’re relying on our own abilities, it’s impossible, we can’t do it, it’s too hard. But if we let God act, then it can happen. And so, the key is to trust, to surrender, to abandoned ourselves to Him, so that He can act. And so, the very awareness of my inability to do this is necessary, because if I thought, well, I can do that, I’m a good, holy person, I’m so holy, I can do this, then we’ll be trying to do with our own abilities. And we might think we’re giving up some riches, but there’ll be other riches, like our own pride and our own ego, that we won’t be letting go of.  And those are much more dangerous riches. And so, it’s the very awareness that I can’t do this, Lord, I can’t do this, I can’t do this. But You, by Your grace can do it in me. And so this, I think, is the key point. The key point I want to emphasize.  We’re all facing a situation, because the Lord’s calling us, but it’s hard to let go of some things. And so, what can we do? What can we do practically? So, I think what did this young man do? He thought about his riches and he turned away from Jesus. And those riches drew him away. So, I think the key thing is to keep our eyes on Jesus. Because if we keep our eyes on Jesus, the power of His grace, the grace which is coming from His love, is stronger than all the bonds that are holding me to these riches, which are pulling me down. And, the power of His grace in His love, can begin to free me from those, can give me the strength. But if I turn my eyes away from Jesus, and try to figure out, let me try to figure this out.  Should I, Jesus are these things, these things are going nice, it’s very hard for us, you know what’s gonna happen, I’m really like, if we try to figure it out by ourselves and work it out, we’re not going to be able to do it. The only way we can do it is by keeping our gaze fixed on Jesus, keeping our attention on Jesus, so that by the power of His grace, what is impossible for me can be done by His grace. So that’s, I think the key point, we can’t do this, unless we keep our gaze fixed on Jesus so that we let His grace act in us. But that’s your decision. You can’t just give up all these things, maybe by yourself, but you can decide to keep your eyes on Jesus. That’s something that you can do, and it’s a struggle, we get distracted every day, but always to try to come back to Jesus. So, if you look at what you’re gonna have to give up, or I’m gonna have to give up this and that, and that’s gonna be so hard, and this is so good.  If Jesus can ask me do all these crazy terrible things, and He does, He does ask us to do all these very difficult things, and so, oh no, I can’t do that. And so, so sorry, Jesus, but goodbye. But we have to keep our eyes fixed on Jesus. And as we’re going through this, all the terrible darkness and storms and attacks that we’re going through right now, what do we need to do to keep our eyes on Jesus? Because there’s a lot of things. You know, we think, why didn’t Jesus give me this? Why didn’t God give me that, you know, but I think a lot of things God doesn’t give us, because He knows will be so hard for us to not become attached to those things. And sometimes out of His mercy, He doesn’t give us things we want, so that we don’t become attached to those things. So, it’s actually out of His love that He doesn’t. Because we become so easily attached to things. There are some things maybe we could never let go of, by ourselves. And so, God either doesn’t give them to us, or He takes them away, to free us. So, there’s, there’s the passage, the passage in the first reading from the great book of Wisdom, it says, and this is another young man, who is saying this, “I prayed and prudence was given me. I pleaded, and the spirit of wisdom came to me”, it was talking about this divine wisdom. “I preferred her”, her this wisdom, “to scepter, and throne,” also to all power, “and deemed riches, nothing in comparison with her. Nor did I liken any precious gem to her, because all gold, in view of her, is a little sand, and before her, silver has to be accounted mire.” so no, no human riches can compare with her. “Beyond health,” beyond health and beauty, “and comeliness I loved her. And I chose to have her rather than the light, because the splendor of her never yields to sleep.”  The light of human understanding, yet all good, so he realizes that he would rather give up everything, all human riches, to attain riches of power, of money, of health, of beauty, of understanding, to acquire this divine wisdom. But he says, “yet all good things together came to me in her company, and countless riches at her hands.”  So, whatever we give up is nothing compared to the infinite richness that God has in store for us. And so just to conclude, as we celebrate this Mass with our Blessed Mother, Seat of Wisdom. So, this is happening right now, this gospel is kind of activated right now in the Mass, because we have the word of God speaking to us, the word, not speaking to us, speaking to you, calling you personally, to liberation. And so, what is the gospel? What is the Mass leading us to? It’s leading us to Holy Communion with Jesus, Jesus calling you to union with Him.  Jesus, looking at you personally, with love, and inviting you to come, follow Me, to have a treasure in heaven, to let go of what we’re holding on to and begin to follow Him. And if we feel we can’t do it, that’s good. We say Jesus, I can’t do that. But I trust in You, I want to trust at least I’m trying to trust in You. I want to keep my eyes on You. For man, it’s impossible, for you it’s impossible, but not for God. And so that’s why the mission of Divine Mercy, faith so that God Himself can act in us.  Jesus, I trust in You.  Amen.