THE IMPOSSIBILITY OF ETERNAL LIFE FOR MAN


TUESDAY, TWENTIETH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME

Judges 6:11-24; Ps 85:9,11-14; Mt 19:23-30

Impossible for Man to Follow Christ

Every time we come to the statement of our Lord Jesus Christ on the impossibility of man entering the kingdom of heaven, we are struck with fear, confusion, and amazement. Reflecting on these solemn words of our Lord clears most of our doubts and strengthens our hope of possessing the communion of God. The Lord’s statement was a reaction to the sudden and sad departure of the man who desired communion with God. The Lord asked him to go sell everything he owned and give the money to the poor, then come join the company of his followers. The Lord made a just demand on him, and on each of us, who seek the life of God. In our first parents, Adam and Eve, we freely abandoned God and all he had to offer us for what is pleasurable to the senses and for the gratification of self. It is therefore a just demand on us to abandon all our external possessions and embrace the gift of God in the emptiness of ourselves. The emptying of self is a necessary condition for entering the communion of God. The Lord first asked the man to go keep the Commandments because they have a role to play in our coming to God. The Commandments reveal our inability to please God to us. Thus, our attempts to do the will of God on our own reveal our spiritual death to us, thereby preparing us to receive the gift of God by making us humble before God.

The initial injunction given to the man to go keep the Commandments has another merit; our constant meditation on the Commandments of God, to keep them, gradually instils the love of God and desire for his holy will in us. Saint Paul confirms this in his struggle to do what is good by his strength. He has received the love and desire for what is good and holy but discovered that he could not do them due to the inherent weakness of the fallen human nature. The struggles also helped him to discover the necessity and importance of the company of the Son of Man for our salvation. Cf. Rom 7:14-8:4. Without passing through the tutorial school of the Law and the Commandments, we would not know our inherent weakness or spiritual death, we would not develop a desire for the holiness of God which is enshrined in the Commandments, and we will not know the need we have of Jesus Christ for spiritual life or communion with God. Our Lord, when he heard the man say that he had kept the Commandments right from his youth, was pleased because the man was not a starter in the journey to God’s rest. Based on this, he lovingly wanted to promote him to the class of discipleship. So, our Lord’s demand on him to go sell everything, give the money to the poor, and come and follow him was not only just, but also compassionate.  The psalmist testifies that the Lord speaks peace always to his people, “I will hear what the Lord God has to say, a voice that speaks of peace, peace for his people and friends and those who turn to him in their hearts.”

Within this reflected background, we understand the statement of our Lord in reaction to the man’s sudden and sad departure. “I tell you solemnly, it will be hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. Yes, I tell you again, it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven.” We have stated the just basis of the impossibility; we must abandon what is ours to possess God, who is our all in all. Anything we hold onto as our possession, apart from God, would make us imperfect and impure to receive God. Hence, the Lord added to the astonishment of the disciples, saying: “For men, this is impossible; for God everything is possible.” Our salvation is impossible by anything we can do or achieve. God works our salvation in us through his Son, Jesus Christ. Faith in Jesus Christ and in what he has done for us is our entrance into the class of the disciples, the company of the Son of Man. We must abandon all indeed as Peter declared for us, to enter the communion of God. “We have left everything and followed you. What are we to have, then?” It is only by abandoning everything and relying on Jesus Christ that we are able to conquer self, the world, and evil, as Gideon did to deliver Israel from the Midianites.

Let us pray: O God, who have prepared for those who love you good things which no eye can see, fill our hearts, we pray, with the warmth of your love, so that, loving you in all things and above all things, we may attain your promises, which surpass every human desire. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever. 

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