Gospel
Mk 10:17-27
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 men it is impossible, but not for God.
All things are possible for God."
Reflection
The point of this Gospel is Salvation. A man comes up to Jesus, somehow knowing that He can help him with his very important question. What must he do in order to inherit eternal life?
Jesus speaks some hard truths in this Gospel passage. The man He is speaking with “went away sad” and His disciples said among themselves, “Then who can be saved?”
At the end of this Gospel, Jesus says it all! “For men it is impossible, but not for God. All things are possible for God.”
Many friends have lost loved ones, I have as well. At the funerals they speak about their deceased loved one as if they are already in heaven. We all hope this is a reality, but when Jesus says something like, “Children, how hard it is to enter the Kingdom of God!” We have to wonder, what do we have to do to inherit eternal life?
When Jesus says, “ For men it is impossible, but not for God. All things are possible for God”, this is our clue. What do we have to do? We have to possess God.* We need Him. God the Holy Spirit is the person who has come to help us possess God. The Holy Spirit is who helped the Saints to withstand their many trials.
Saint Alphonsus writes, in his Dekaena to the Holy Spirit day two, how the Holy Spirit helps to show the vanity of earthly things and shows us the importance of salvation. He writes, “A man who is absorbed in the pleasures of the world knows little of these truths and therefore, unfortunate that he is, loves what he ought to hate and hates what he ought to love. St. Magdalene of Pazzi exclaimed: “Oh, love not known! Oh, love not loved!” And St. Theresa said that God is not loved because he is not known.”
We can pray with St. Augustine’s Prayer to the Holy Spirit for His guidance and help each day. This prayer is our way of asking for the Holy Spirit to be with us in all we do, think and say. This is the beginning step toward our ultimate purpose of going to heaven.*
*PAPA TOP SECRET II - The Secret to Eternal Life
