Gospel: Matthew
19:16-22
A young
man approached Jesus and said, “Teacher, what good must I do to gain eternal
life?” He answered him, “Why do you ask me about the good? There is only One
who is good. If you wish to enter into life, keep the commandments.” He asked
him, “Which ones?” And Jesus replied, “You shall not kill; you shall not commit
adultery; you shall not steal; you shall not bear false witness; honor your
father and your mother; and you shall love your neighbor as yourself.” 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.
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Reflection:
Would you
give up all your material riches for the sake of the Lord?
The young
man did all of the commandments except for one, to sell all his materials
treasures and give the proceeds to the poor. This was the stumbling block to
his desire to truly follow Jesus. Not being able to do what Jesus wanted him,
he walked away sad for he was rich.
A sad ending
to a promising story of discipleship all because of material
possessions. The man failed to discern what is temporary and what is eternal.
He didn’t discern that his riches were temporary and following Jesus was
everlasting. If only he knew it he would have abandoned everything for the sake
of following Jesus.
We are
being challenged by the gospel to be more discerning than this rich young man.
We are being challenged by Jesus to look deeply into our lives for the reason
that we may be slaves already of this material world.
In
hindsight, why is it that many of us are very much willing to become slaves of
this world when all that is in this world is passing? For example, power,
riches and other worldly comforts there will come a time that we will leave it
behind.
There
will come a time that everything that we have will not matter anymore except
our relationship with Jesus. – Marino J. Dasmarinas
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