Monday in the Eighth Week of Ordinary Time, May 27, 2024

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.”

This Gospel Reading should be read together with Mark 10, 13-16 wherein Jesus tells his Apostles that “whoever does not accept the Kingdom of God like a child will not enter it”, for the two readings complement each other: those who become like children entering the Kingdom of God and those who want to enter without becoming like children, “camels” who will not make themselves small so as to enter through the eye of the needle, “the narrow gate” (cf. Matthew 7, 13).  

“Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone.”  The Lord responds to the young man’s attempt at a compliment by challenging him and seeking to draw a confession of faith from him: if, as the young man says, Jesus is a “good” teacher, but only God is good, does the young man mean to confess that Jesus is God?  The Lord’s question should be read so that a period of silence ensues afterwards, with the Lord awaiting an answer.  When the young man does not answer, the Lord went through some of the commandments, especially those which a young man could have easily kept: “Teacher, all of these I have observed from my youth.”

“Jesus, looking at him, loved him.”  St. Peter, recalling this episode many years later, remembered the Lord’s expression as he looked upon the young man.  The Lord Jesus felt intense love for each person and primarily showed this in his deeds for them.  Here we have an occasion in which he shows his love through his facial expression.  We can only imagine the joy this look gives to those who die in the state of grace and open their eyes in the next life to see 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.”  So what is it that the young man is lacking that selling his property to follow Jesus will solve?  It will put him in a position of complete dependency on Christ.  If he, as a rich man, tries to follow Jesus, he can always say to himself that if Jesus asks too much of him, he can always go back to his former life.  Or, he can use his wealth to buffer himself from the harder things the Lord demands of his disciples.  There is also the question of attitude, that the rich man will always prefer his ideas to those of others because, after all, he is rich.  In sum, Jesus tells him to make himself “a little one”, a child (cf. Mark 10, 15).

“His face fell, and he went away sad, for he had many possessions.”  We should keep in mind how the Lord had looked on this man with love.  The Lord’s love for him flowed out to him, and the man’s face fell and he “went away sad” because as much as he wanted to return that love and follow Jesus, he could not because he loved his things more.  “How hard it is for those who have wealth to enter the Kingdom of God!”  The wealthy tend to rely on their wealth and their position in society to obtain whatever they wish.  Wealth thus becomes a barrier between a man and his God.  It is difficult as well for the wealthy to understand their absolute dependence on Almighty God and their position in this world as his servants.  But the Lord says it is “hard”, not impossible, for the wealthy to enter the Kingdom of God.  What is necessary is that they, like the rest of us, pray for humility and for the heart of a servant.  Numerous examples of the wealthy are found in the Martyrology, such as St. Louis, King of France.  To emphasize what the wealthy — and all of us — need to do, the Lord addresses his Apostles, who have given up everything for him, as “children”: “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.”

“Then who can be saved?”  The Apostles had been raised in a religious culture which saw possessions and property in this life as signs of God’s benediction, and that they would necessarily pass on to heaven.  The severity of their agitation at the Lord’s words shows how deeply baked in them this view was.  “For men it is impossible, but not for God. All things are possible for God.”  That is, All are sinners and no one can save himself.  We are saved solely by the mercy of Almighty God through the redemption wrought by the Blood of his Son.