Sunday Meditation: What Must I Do To Inherit Eternal Life?

Last week as Jesus was on a journey, He was stopped and asked a question by the Pharisees.  This week, again continuing His journey he is asked a question, this time by a rich, young man.  Last week the question was set as a trap.  This week the question is sincere, and I think is the most important question we could ever ask.  Now this event is told in all three synoptic Gospels, and what is interesting is that all three describe the man subtly different.  Mark identifies him as rich, Matthew as young, and Luke as a ruler.  So we combine all three and get the “rich, young ruler,” but only in the Gospel of Mark are we told that Jesus looked at him with love.

 

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."

~Mk 10:17-30

 

First to explain the Biblical context of the passage, let’s let Dr. Brant Pitre explain it.

And so Jesus gives us the “eleventh commandment.”  If this is a commandment, then the implications of are great.  I’m going to let Bishop James Golka from the Diocese of Colorado Springs explain the moral implications of the passage.

 

We are never told what happens to the rich, young man.  I would like to think that the penetrating love of Christ worked in the man’s soul, and, though he may have missed the opportunity to follow Christ that day, he subsequently became a Christian and worked to bring about the Kingdom of God.

 

Sunday Meditation: “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."

John Michael Talbot’s “Walk And Follow Jesus” is most appropriate for today.

 

 

Faith Filled Friday: Pope Pius X’s Prayer to Saint Joseph

In the devotional magazine Magnificat, Anthony Esolen has a monthly feature called Poetry of Praise where each month he analyzes a different prayer.  In the September 2024 issue he analyzed the prayer to St. Joseph composed by Pope Pius X.  Esolen selected this prayer in honor of Labor Day which occurs early in that month.  I’m not going to quote any of Esolen’s analysis—and it’s quite good and interesting—but I was so struck with the prayer that I wanted to present it to you. 

 

 O Glorious Saint Joseph, model of all those who are devoted to labor, obtain for me the grace to work in a spirit of penance for the expiation of my many sins; to work conscientiously, putting the call of duty above my natural inclinations; to work with thankfulness and joy, considering it an honor to employ and develop by means of labor the gifts received from God; to work with order, peace, moderation and patience, never shrinking from weariness and trials; to work above all with purity of intention and detachment from self, keeping unceasingly before my eyes death and the account that I must give of time lost, talents unused, good omitted, and vain complacency in success, so fatal to the work of God.

 

All for Jesus, all through Mary, all after thy example, O Patriarch, Saint Joseph. Such shall be my watch-word in life and in death. Amen.

 

It is also interesting the prayer calls to work with “order.”  When I was in college I had a part time job working in a supermarket in the produce department.  It was a blessing not only for the money I earned but because there were times I got to work with my Uncle Val, may he rest in peace, who also worked there.  He was a good mentor, and he taught me well.  I remember some of his principles.  One was to always to be organized.  Work like a gentleman he used to say.  This prayer captured my Uncle Val perfectly.  Thinking back, it felt like I was a child working under the tutelage of St. Joseph.  I built quite a relationship with my Uncle Val.  He became my favorite uncle.  The power of working together builds such bonds.  You might even call it a religious bond.  Uncle Valentino, I miss him so. 

I particular like the line in the prayer “to work above all with purity of intention and detachment from self.”  Besides applying that to the labor by which I earn my living, that also applies to the labor of this blog, which is sort of labor of love.  What I write here perhaps is putting into labor the “gifts received from God.”  May it be worthy of God’s trust. 

If you want it to hear prayer read, you can listen to it on this clip. 

 

Many people pray this prayer before starting work.  What a wonderful idea.

 

Sunday Meditation: The Sacrament of Marriage

As Jesus enters Judea, he is immediately challenged by the Pharisees.  As we will see, it is not just a challenge but a trap.  What is it they are trapping him with?  It is important to notice, that Jesus is not a literal interpreter of scripture.  The Torah had an incorrect balance of the nature of man and woman, and thereby distorted the understanding of humanity and of marriage. 

 

The Pharisees approached Jesus and asked,

"Is it lawful for a husband to divorce his wife?"

They were testing him.

He said to them in reply, "What did Moses command you?"

They replied,

"Moses permitted a husband to write a bill of divorce

and dismiss her."

But Jesus told them,

"Because of the hardness of your hearts

he wrote you this commandment.

But from the beginning of creation, God made them male and female. For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother

and be joined to his wife,

and the two shall become one flesh.

So they are no longer two but one flesh.

Therefore what God has joined together,

no human being must separate."

In the house the disciples again questioned Jesus about this.

He said to them,

"Whoever divorces his wife and marries another

commits adultery against her;

and if she divorces her husband and marries another,

she commits adultery."

 

And people were bringing children to him that he might touch them, but the disciples rebuked them.

When Jesus saw this he became indignant and said to them,

"Let the children come to me;

do not prevent them, for the kingdom of God belongs to

such as these.

Amen, I say to you,

whoever does not accept the kingdom of God like a child

will not enter it."

Then he embraced them and blessed them,

placing his hands on them.

~Mk 10:2-16

 

The absolute best and fullest of the explanations on this passage is from Fr. Geoffrey Plant again.  There are so many enlightening thoughts in this exegesis.

 

Fr. Geoffrey identifies the trap of the Pharisees to be of the beheading of John the Baptist.  It is over the divine rules of marriage and not rules created by human hardness of heart that leads to the Baptist’s execution.  Marriage we see is a sacrament, not a contract.

Jesus—perhaps the first truly great feminist in the proper sense of the word—elevates women here by making it a sin to divorce.  By allowing men to divorce their wives, the natural balance of man and woman are distorted.  Jesus ennobles women by returning her to man’s complement, not man’s servant.  Genesis is restored to proper order.

But what about the four verses at the end which deal with Jesus welcoming children?  Most homilies I bet are not going to touch on this.  It seems like it was tagged on at the end.  By Jesus restoring men and women to their proper order, it establishes the family as the building block of society.  It is only in this context that children can be raised to proper flourishing.  Proper order in marriage leads to those that are disposed to enter the kingdom of heaven. 

 

Sunday Meditation: “For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother

and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.”

 

Our hymn today will be the beautiful “Ode to the Bride,” by John Michael Talbot