Monday in the Eighth Week of Ordinary Time, May 29, 2023

Mark 10, 17-27

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?” Jesus answered him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone. You know the commandments: You shall not kill; you shall not commit adultery; you shall not steal; you shall not bear false witness; you shall not defraud; honor your father and your mother.” He replied and said to him, “Teacher, all of these I have observed from my youth.” Jesus, looking at him, loved him and said to him, “You are lacking in one thing. Go, sell what you have, and give to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.” At that statement, his face fell, and he went away sad, for he had many possessions. Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, “How hard it is for those who have wealth to enter the Kingdom of God!” The disciples were amazed at his words. So Jesus again said to them in reply, “Children, how hard it is to enter the Kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for one who is rich to enter the Kingdom of God.” They were exceedingly astonished and said among themselves, “Then who can be saved?” Jesus looked at them and said, “For men it is impossible, but not for God. All things are possible for God.”

Previous to the new Missal in 1970, the period or season following Pentecost was known as “Time after Pentecost”, and so there was “the Third Monday after Pentecost”, and the like.  This very distinct time was separate from the weeks between Epiphany and Lent, which was called the “Time after Epiphany”, and then the weeks immediately preceding Lent as “Septuagesima”, “Sextuagesima” — seventy and sixty days before Easter, respectively, a period now called “Ordinary Time”, just as also the Time after Pentecost has been reduced to Ordinary Time.  This term lacks precision and also takes away from the meanings of these two separate seasons, the Time after Epiphany and the Time after Pentecost.  The term “ordinary” simple refers to ordinal numbers, the way these weeks are counted.  It is a very generic term.  The Time after Pentecost, however, tells us that this is the time of grace, of spreading the Gospel to the whole world as Christ has commanded us.  This season leads us to that of Advent, the season immediately preceding the Solemnity of Christmas in which we celebrate the historical fact of the Birth of the Son of God, and look forward to his second coming, when he will judge us for how we have spread his Gospel.

“As Jesus was setting out on a journey, a man ran up, knelt down before him, and asked him, etc.”  The Lord and his Apostles had equipped themselves with supplies for their next missionary trip.  These would have included water, bread, and probably some dried fish.  The Lord May or may not have announced to the Apostles where they were going — as we know from our own lives, Jesus does not usually disclose his plans for us ahead of time.  They were departing from Capharnaum.  As they set out, a man came running up to them before they got very far.  His running provokes questions, for if he were a citizen of the town, he could have talked to Jesus at any time he resided there.  Also, his running suggests that his question was an urgent one.  He needed an answer now.  He could not wait until the Lord returned and only the Lord could answer it.  He fell to his knees before the Lord, which was the posture of a slave before his master, and asked, “Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”  He asks a very necessary question.  He also addresses Jesus in a way that must have raised eyebrows.  Even the Lord asks him what he means.  The man calls Jesus “good teacher”.  He does not call him “righteous teacher” or simply “teacher”.  The Greek word is agathos, which means “intrinsically good”, as when the Lord says, “Every good tree brings forth good fruit” (Matthew 7, 17).  This is very different from, say, “righteous”.  The Lord points this out to the man: “Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone.”  The Lord is inviting the man to make a true profession of faith.  The fact that the man does not do this may indicate that his exclamation was an impulsive one, or simply that the man lacked the courage or the faith to make this kind of confession.  Based on how he acts later on, we might think it to be the second case.

“You know the commandments.”  The Lord then enumerates some of the Jewish Law for him.  He does this to tease him, to get him to reveal what he really wants to ask.  “Teacher, all of these I have observed from my youth.”  He has been an observant Jew and yet he feels in his heart that it is not enough.  God himself has revealed this to him.  Now God will tell him what more he must do, what he calls him to do to find eternal life and not merely to obtain the promises of Moses.  “Go, sell what you have, and give to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.”  The “one thing” he was lacking was to follow Jesus, and in order to do that he must irrevocably leave all his belongings behind.  The Apostles had done this.  But because of the man’s severe attachment to his things, the Lord commands him to sell them.  In that way, nothing holds him back.  All he will have is Jesus.  “At that statement, his face fell, and he went away sad, for he had many possessions.”  He could not imagine a life without his things.  This man signifies people who commit some malicious act against another person and are willing to apologize later and even to sit through meetings with counselors or physicians to exhibit a willingness to change, but who do not make up for what they did or seriously make an effort to change their behavior.  It is so part of who they understand themselves to be that the idea of actually reforming makes no sense.  It is as though a pig were being told to become a human, as far as they are concerned.

“Jesus, looking at him, loved him.”  All the love the Lord Jesus poured out for him made no difference to him.  His heart had no room for his love and so could not return it.  His heart had room only for his things.