Twenty-eighth Sunday in Ordinary Time – October 13, 2024
Does Jesus want us to sell everything we have to inherit eternal life? Or is this another hyperbole to get our attention? Recall that in the first Christian community, “no one claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but they had everything in common” (Acts 4:32).
We are quick to dismiss the rich man who couldn’t accept Jesus’s instruction—“Go, sell what you have, and give to the poor”—even as we justify why we are exempt from this mandate. Perhaps we’re more like the rich man than we think.
As we’ve heard in various ways these last few weeks, all things are possible for God. What is needed is our desire to let God do what is impossible for us.
We, too, have honored our commitments and avoided doing what is wrong but have lacked entrusting everything to God. We may have handed over our will to the Lord but not our way, deciding for ourselves the most reasonable path to the cross.
Despite the rich man’s inability to embrace Jesus’s terms, Jesus loved him for asking. As we’ve heard in various ways these last few weeks, all things are possible for God. What is needed is our desire to let God do what is impossible for us. With Thomas Merton, then, let us pray: “. . . the fact that I think I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so. But I believe that the desire to please you does in fact please you” (Thoughts in Solitude).
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