The story of the rich man, which we read as the Gospel at Mass for the 28th Sunday in Ordinary Time, is one of the foundational Scriptural texts for religious life:
“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.”
Whenever I read this Gospel, I have two reactions. The first one is a gut feeling of anxiety, of being called out. Because if you’re like me and you’ve ever said or thought to yourself, even just in your own head, that you’re doing pretty well in the spiritual life, or at least doing better than most people, then you’re like this man in the Gospel. “I go to church, I haven’t killed, I haven’t stolen anything. All of these I have observed from my youth.”
But what does Jesus say? Go, sell what you have, give to the poor, have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me. And then that anxiety hits, that called-out feeling. Because I might think I’m pretty good, but when push comes to shove – when Jesus actually tells me what it takes to be perfect – all of a sudden I get defensive: “Surely he doesn’t really mean what he says, right? Surely he’s exaggerating. Surely I don’t really have to do that, right?”
But the second reaction I have is a desire to actually respond to this invitation of Jesus, to actually just do what Jesus says. Go, sell what you have, give to the poor, have treasure in heaven, and come, follow me. Scary? Yes! Intimidating? Yes! Reckless? Yes! Prudent in the eyes of the world? No!
But also: really exciting? Yes! What Jesus invites this man to do is to just cut bait on all the stuff that’s holding him back. And it’s amazing to think about what would be possible if we did what Jesus invites this man to do. In point of fact, just doing what the Gospel says is the best recipe we have for becoming a saint.
The history of our Church shows this. Our greatest saints are just those people who managed to hear the Gospel and then actually put it into practice. They just did what the Gospel says. Perhaps the most famous example in connection to this theme is St. Francis, who was born into a rich family, and then one day clearly understood what God wanted from him. And then he just did it. He famously stripped naked in front of his family as a sign that he was renouncing his wealth and proceeded to live as a pauper. Another one is St. Anthony, who lived in Egypt in the third century. One day he came to church, just an ordinary day like any other, and he heard this Gospel – the story of the rich man. And after the liturgy, he just did what Jesus said. He left the church, sold his possessions, gave them to the poor, and then lived his life praying and serving as a spiritual guide for others.
To go from doing the minimum in our lives – (“I’m not committing adultery, I’m not defrauding anyone, isn’t that good enough?”) – to the maximum – (“What if you sold what you have, gave it to the poor, received treasure in heaven, and then came and followed me?”) – is a huge step, and one that I find myself only having taken fitfully and imperfectly. But it is what my vocation to Holy Cross is about and what the vows and the evangelical counsels demand of me.
The primary purpose of religious life – in any religious community, including Holy Cross – is to help their members live out this call of Jesus to leave everything to follow him. And yes, if it is not already obvious, we certainly fail often and in lots of ways to carry out this invitation of Jesus, to “go, sell what you have, give to the poor, receive treasure in heaven, and come, follow me.” But the ideal is still there: simply to take Jesus at his word and to trust in his plan and his providence.
Fr. Steve Jakubowski, C.S.C.
Published 23 October 2024
Cover photo: Heinrich Hoffman, “Christ and the Rich Young Ruler”, 1889
