12th Sunday of Mathew - Choice and the Youth
Then Jesus, beholding him, loved him and said to him, One thing you lack. Go, sell whatever you have and give it to the poor, and you shall have treasure in Heaven. And come, take up the cross and follow Me. (Mar 10:21)
Beloved Brothers,
Choice is a word that is used a lot today. People say that choice is to be able to do what you want, when you want it, how you want it. But is this the right thing to do? We are faced with choices every day, and these choices define us as individuals. I'll give you an example. It is my choice on Saturday night to decide to go to a party or come to Church for Vespers. It is also my choice to be a steward of the Church or put my money into a high interest high risk savings account. It is my choice to be here today and praise the Lord instead of enjoying a beer and a barbeque on a lake.
In the end we are what we choose to be. God has nothing to do with were we end up. He is setting up the stage properly for all of us but, in the end it is us who answer or not His calling. But in doing this we need to be ready to accept the consequences. If you choose to stay far away from God don't expect that at the end of your life He will say, come to me. But He would rather say "Verily I say unto you, I know you not."(Matthew 25:12)
Choice is more important especially at a young age, when the future adult begins to develop. A young man or woman has multiple choices in life, and the number of possibilities is sometimes overwhelming. This is why, at this age, they are looking for models, to guide them toward the undefined goal they can instinctively infer in front of them.
Some of the models they choose however are not fit for the task. Sport stars, actors, singers, Asian gurus are often choosed, but many times their personal lives are far from being proper examples to follow. These people flash in front of our eyes lives full with apparent prosperity and achievement but their success is most of the times driven by sin in a permanent search for pride, pleasure and lack of responsibility. Following these "leaders" some of the young people get only superficial answers to their fundamental questions: who am I? What am I doing here? Where am I going? They miss once again the spiritual side of their life that their models have missed at their turn. They believe they are alive and enjoying life in its fullness, however they start to slowly die on the inside.
The search of the youth is primarily spiritual, it is about finding out their place in the Universe. This is why the proper answer cannot be found outside of the Creator of this Universe. Trying to find the purpose of a house without asking the Architect can lead many times to the wrong conclusions.
The young man from today's Gospel is looking for such a master, a master that can unlock for him the secret of life in a hope to achieve the eternal. So he comes to Christ as to a very wise Teacher. He does not recognize Him as God, but he comes in honesty with an open heart, ready to act upon the advice he is about to receive. "Good Master, what good thing shall I do, that I may have eternal life? "(Matthew 19:16)
Jesus Christ starts teaching him the steps of Christian redemption, starting with the prohibitive commandments: "Thou shalt do no murder, Thou shalt not commit adultery, Thou shalt not steal, Thou shalt not bear false witness"(Matthew 19:18) We see here that Jesus changes the known order of the Decalogue. Why this, because the beginning of the spiritual life is to stay away from evil. This is the entrance in the Christian life; this is the bare minimum so we can at least enter into life. The final accomplishment in love will eventually come later, if we will have enough will and faith, but the beginning is always the observance of the commandments. The commandments are like dams along a raging river, keeping it from overflowing, guiding our turbulent lives toward a safe haven. Nobody can love Christ from his whole heart if he will not fear first into the depth of his heart. (Philokalia)[1].
So normal life, regular Christian life is achieved through commandments. But this is not enough. This is but the starting point of our spiritual journey. However many of us, like the young man today, believe that's it: If I respect the commandments and I come to church from time to time that's it. Heaven is at my reach. However soon we begin to realize that if we really want to go one step further we are still missing something, but we can't figure it out. This is when we start wondering"All these things have I kept from my youth up: what lack I yet?" (Matthew 19:20)
If we want to achieve the perfection that fills our souls to its limits we should follow Christ's advice: "go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come and follow me." (Matthew 19:21). Spiritual perfection cannot be reached until all the worldly cares are set aside, until all the riches of this world are forgotten, until we do not wake up to the reality of Christ and follow Him.
If we want to achieve perfection we need to get to the final stage of the spiritual ladder, Love, but not any kind of love, but sacrificial love. The love that makes me give my life, my richest treasure, for my kin. The love that we saw reaching perfection in Jesus Christ, He is the model we should all follow. He gave His life for us, the unworthy, we should all do the same for our neighbor, may he be good or bad. Giving to him, we give to Christ, and through Christ loves comes back to us.
But I acknowledge the fact that this stage is very difficult to achieve. We are so entrenched into earthly possessions that we do not want to share. We like to accumulate but we do not like to give. "when the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful: for he had great possessions." (Matthew 19:22)
We have great possession, earthly possession. Possessions of sin that we do not want to give up, possessions of gold and silver that will rot with us in the grave. But the true treasure if achieving a place in the kingdom of heaven. The only way to achieve it is to share. Each of us has been blessed with riches; let us share them in our community. One has money, let him build something; one has knowledge let him teach others, one has faith let him pray for all of us. We all should dedicate our riches to God and they will be blessed, otherwise we will fear hearing the words of Jesus Christ; "I say unto you, It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God."(Matthew 19:24)
Let us all choose to be stewards of the Lord and of our Community of faith. Let us choose to build together a Church so strong that "the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. "(Matthew 16:18); a Church in which all our treasures are shared and dedicated to Christ, our Master and our Lord, the only model we should follow in our life. Amin.
[1] Diadoh al Foticeei, Filocalia Nimeni nu poate să iubească pe Dumnezeu din toată inima, dacă nu se va teme de El mai întâi intru simţirea inimii