The 28th Sunday in Ordinary Time, October 10, 2021

Mark 10:17–30

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 human beings it is impossible, but not for God. All things are possible for God.” Peter began to say to him, “We have given up everything and followed you.” Jesus said, “Amen, I say to you, there is no one who has given up house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands for my sake and for the sake of the gospel who will not receive a hundred times more now in this present age: houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and eternal life in the age to come.” 

“Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” St. Mark translates into Greek the the Aramaic or Hebrew words the Lord, his Apostles, and others in his Gospel used.  Here he tells us the young man who came to Jesus used a word that should be translated using the Greek agathos, which means “(intrinsically) good”.  He does not call the Lord a “skilled” or “helpful” teacher, but something more like “holy” teacher.  The Lord questions him as to his use of good, not denying that it rightfully applies to him, seeking to draw the man out and cause him to verbalize his meaning, but the young man seems to reconsider his statement.  That there is a pause during which the Lord gave the young man a chance to answer him, is clear from the change in subject in the Lord’s words: “No one is good but God alone. You know the commandments.”

The young man addressed Jesus as “good” but then refrained from explaining what he meant.  The Lord shows, in his answer, what it means for a person to be good.  He begins by quoting the Jewish Law: “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.”  Obeying the Law makes a person good.  This “goodness” is sufficient for eternal life.  But the young man feels a deeper calling: “Teacher, all of these I have observed from my youth.”  St. Mark tells us that “Jesus, looking at him, loved him.”  The Lord looked upon him with evident affection, the way we would at a child trying his best to do something for a little brother or sister.  And then he said to the man, “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.”  Obeying the commandments may make a person good, but voluntary poverty for the sake of following the Lord allows a person to become perfect, as we see Jesus saying in St. Matthew’s account of this event (cf. Matthew 19, 21).  

When the young man walked away sadly because of his attachment to his possessions, the Lord commented, “How hard it is for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!”  This seriously alarmed the Apostles who had been taught by the Pharisees that wealth was a sign of God’s favor, leading to the widespread belief in Israel that those who would be saved were wealthy.  The Apostles, to this point, had expected that in following the Messiah the temporary poverty they incurred for his sake would be rewarded, when Jesus, as Messiah, came to power.  At that time, they would wield wealth and power, and these would serve as signs of God’s favor of them.  Thus, Peter’s heartfelt cry: “We have given up everything and followed you!”

“There is no one who has given up house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands for my sake and for the sake of the Gospel who will not receive a hundred times more now in this present age, etc.”  The Lord reassures Peter and the others in terms they understand, yet he means inconceivably more in spiritual terms.  The poverty the Apostles have voluntarily accepted makes them capable of receiving far greater things than what they had given up.  They are called not to mere goodness, but to perfection.

We should never be satisfied with being good, but to seek perfection.  Since it is in our giving up that we are able to receive, we ought to drop what we cling to here and now in order to embrace the Lord with both arms, in the same way he embraces us.