MONDAY, TWENTIETH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME
Ez 24: 15-23 Dt 32: 18-21 Mt 19: 16-22
CALLED TO GIVE UP
In the first reading, Prophet Ezekiel is asked to give up his wife, the apple of his eye and whole-heartedly he does it as he was instructed. And in contrast, we have a young man, he went away from Jesus, not being able to relieve himself of his enormous possession.
We find two approaches in this gospel passage. The first is a good approach. It is a question of focusing on doing good deeds. The second approach is to become a loving person, ready to express that love in any sacrifice God may ask of us. Therefore, to follow Jesus, we need to shake off anything that binds us or any shackles that imprison us, in a dependency on wealth, esteem, and comfort. Any ‘wealth’ that takes first place in our life could be a block to freedom in following the Lord. The wealth of the man who met Jesus in this incident made him sad – a sure sign that his possessions were possessing and imprisoning him. Wealth, friends, success, and all we often desire in life can bring us closer to God or distance us from God and our true selves. Prayer may purify our relationship with everything else in our lives.
The man found out through meeting Jesus that happiness is found not in keeping commandments but in giving away possessions. The attachment he had to his possessions gave him grief and kept him from enjoying life. We need to ask ourselves. What holds us back from living life to the fullest? Therefore, we have to practice offering that emptiness to the Lord in prayer and asking him to fill it with his grace. The young man who approached Jesus had many things to ask, but his questions seemed to be ways of keeping God’s message at a distance. Jesus finally said what he may already have known: following God means not just a change of mind but also a change of heart. As God reveals to us what we must do, we are also given the strength to do it.
Response: You forgot the God who gave you birth.
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