Empty
My Heart So It Can Contain Only You
Mk
10: 17 – 30
28th
Sunday in Ordinary Time
Introduction
Our Gospel today narrates to us the story of a man who
approached Jesus, asking him how he could inherit eternal life. He came to
Jesus quite enthusiastically, desiring to live a just and righteous life.
However, at the end of the story, he leaves Jesus sad because he could not let
go of what seems to be dear to him.
The
Gospel
As Jesus was setting out on a journey, a man ran up, knelt
down before him. This was how the evangelist Mark described the man who came up
to Jesus one day. He was running perhaps
out of excitement and showed deep respect and reverence for Jesus, as he knelt
down and addressed Jesus as “good teacher.” Then
he asked Jesus: “ What must I do to inherit eternal life.” Jesus’ answer was
quick: “ 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.”
The man then responded: “ Teacher, all of these I have
observed from my youth.” The man’s response was true and sincere. So true and
sincere that the gospel tells us that “Jesus looked at him and loved him”
indicating to us that this man has truly followed the law and lived an honest
and just life.
Jesus then, seeing the man’s desire to live a just and honest
life, gave him one more counsel, saying: “ 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.” Immediately, the gospel says, the man’s face fell and he
went away sad, for he had many possessions.
At seeing the man’s excitement turn to an apparent
disappointment, Jesus looked around and said to his disciples: “ How hard it is
for those who have wealth 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.”
Certainly, this statement coming from Jesus is a hyperbole,
an exaggerated form of speech meant to bring home a point.
In the time of Jesus, riches, wealth and prosperity were seen
to be blessings from God. Israel’s patriarchs like Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and
Joseph were all blessed with riches and abundance. Jesus turns all of that belief
now on its head and changes the optics of this perception. Riches and wealth can indeed be a blessing;
but over reliance over such resources can be a real hindrance in entering God’s
kingdom, Jesus tells us.
Perhaps, disturbed by what they have heard and seen, the
disciples asked Jesus: “ Then who can be saved? Jesus then says: “ For human
beings it is impossible, but not for God. All things are possible for God.”
Then Peter said to him, “ We have given up everything and
followed you.” Jesus then 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.”
Reflection
Like the disciples, we too can be disturbed and perplexed by
Jesus with what he told the rich man. And maybe, together with the rich man, we
could be asking ourselves too: can wealth and riches be a great hindrance in
entering into God’s kingdom?
We must understand however, what Jesus told the young man:
“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.” The young man was
already observant of the law. He has fulfilled what was required of the law. He
was already living an honest and just life. It is for this reason that Jesus looked
at him with love. But this didn’t stop Jesus from looking further into his
heart.
The “one thing that was lacking” of him was his attachment to
what he held to be dear to him. He couldn’t let go of these. Jesus looked at
his heart and saw that his heart was entangled with what he possessed. Jesus
tells him to break loose from these entanglements.
While wealth was the entanglement that Jesus saw in the man’s
heart, Jesus didn’t limit such entanglements to wealth alone. This is why he
mentions “house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or
lands.”
The entanglements of the heart can also refer to
relationships and hard earned assets. In
short, entanglements can refer to anything that imprisons our hearts, be it
money, relationships, fame, talents, a vice, an ill-feeling and so many other
things. Jesus wants us to break loose from all of these, so that just like
what he told the rich man, we can come and follow him with an undivided heart.
The reliance we could have on money is clear. Money can give
us power to do practically anything we want to do. But God’s kingdom doesn’t
work that way. God doesn’t want us to rely on created things. He wants us to
rely solely on him. To strip our hearts bare from any created attachment and
rely solely on the Lord allows us to give up even the most treasured
possessions we could have in order to follow the Lord.
And what does Jesus promise those who have dispossessed
themselves of all attachments? He promises this: “he will receive a hundred times
more now in this present age.” Jesus
says that in giving up what is dear to us for the sake of the kingdom, we will
receive a hundred times more in this present age.
Man’s generosity will always be outdone by God’s own
generosity. Jesus practically tells us, that giving up all our attachments is
all worth it. Let us pray to the Lord that he may grant us the grace to make
that first step of detaching ourselves from that which we hold so dear.
Prayer
Jesus, you know that I love you. But when you look inside my
heart, you see that I have other loves other than you. My heart is too crowded.
You are just one of the things that I have squeezed inside it. Today you tell
me to empty my heart so that it can contain only you. Give me the grace to make
that first step of emptying my heart so it can contain only you. Amen.
“Our Lord Jesus Christ,
though he was rich, yet for your sakes became poor, so that by his poverty you
might become rich.” - 2 Cor 8: 9
See also my song in youtube: You’re all I have as a meditation song for this reflection.
For more reflections like these visit my blog:
thevineyardlaborer.blogspot.com
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