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28th Sunday in Ordinary Time
The young man has a very valid question: What must I do to
inherit eternal life? And the first answer of Jesus was obedience to the
commandments. But the young man has done all that since childhood. And so,
Jesus gave him a more personal, penetrating answer: Sell what you have and give
to the poor, then, follow me.
Now, the question of the young man has been answered. Now,
the young man knew what was necessary, what was needed to be done. But he went
away sad for he had many possessions. The young man knew what was the right
thing to do and did not do it. Why? For he did not trust Jesus enough. He trusted more his possessions; not the Lord.
I guess, in one way or another we are like
the young man. We already know what to do. We know what is pleasing to the
Lord. We know what is right, what is good. We have an inkling of what the Lord
wants. We all know that we need to have faith, to serve, to help, to give, to
share, to forgive. We all know we need to be honest, to be true, not to get what is not ours. We all know we need to turn away from sin, to overcome
vices, to cast away pride, to conquer selfishness.
We all know what to do. But,
oftentimes, we don’t do it. Why? Because we rationalize; we justify. We say we are not
ready. We say we still have time. We say God will understand. We say that it is not for me.
But the bottom
line is this: we do not do what we know we ought to do because like the young
man in the gospel, we do not trust the Lord enough.
And so Jesus in the gospel today reminds us: “For human
beings it is impossible, but nor for God. All things are possible for God.”
Do we trust him enough that when we say yes to him, he shall not abandon us? Do we trust him enough that when we surrender to him, he shall provide for us? Do we trust God enough?
