Monday, August 19, 2019

The five commands

In today’s gospel we have the well known story of the rich young man whose walks away sad because he apparently can’t give up his possesions. But if we look closely we see more. There are actually five commands that Jesus gives him as the way to perfection, the way to reach his goal.

GO - the first thing Jesus commands him to do is go away. That in itself can be very difficult for us. The idea of retreat, quiet, alone time with God can be too difficult. But if we are to be truly human, to be the people God created us to be, we must from time to time step away from what we know, step away from our routine, from the busyness that we call life.

SELL - It is interesting that Jesus does not tell him to give his possessions away. Jesus does not say,”Give what you have to the poor,” He commands him to sell it. To sell something I first of all have to know that it is valuable. I have to know the value of a thing, and set a price. Jesus is not telling him that possesions are valueless. On the contrary, to sell all he has means that he knows precisely how valuable the things are and the freely chooses to part with them. Bu at this pint in the process he would still have a safety net, the money from the sale.  He can still provide for himself.

GIVE - The third step is to let go of the safety net and simultaneously fulfill the second of the two great commands, love your neighbor. Again he must stretch. In a class driven society, he would not personally know any poor people. He would only see them as we see street people, from a certain distance.  To reach perfection, he cannot give the money to family and friends, he must give it to the poor.  Now he is truly free. And ready for the next command. 

COME - The fourth command is the opppsite of the first. He was told to go away, now he is commanded to draw near to Christ. No money, no possesions and therefore totally dependent on God and others for the needs of life. And yet, it is then that he is truly free. 

FOLOW - The last step may in fact be the most difficult. He is told to follow. The Greek literally means “to be on the same path”. The true disciple must walk the same road as Jesus, to walk with Jesus, day in and day out. It is not something you do once, it must become a way of life, all day every day. That is the hard part. 

In this simple story we are given the path to Christian perfect (go, sell, give, come, follow). Each of us must look into our hearts and discover how we are called to do each and f these things if we wish to reach our telos, our goal, our perfection.