WHAT MORE?

Mathew 19: 16-22

The young man who comes to Christ is enthusiastic, eager, earnest and sincere about wanting to be good. He comes running, he kneels, he shows respect. He acknowledges Jesus as a master and teacher.  Christ welcomes him with an open mind and gives him time and attention. The young man asks a very fundamental question, “Good Master, what good must I do to have eternal life?”( Mt.19.16).  The young man was lucky to have come to the right source, with the right question, but there were some fundamental flaws in his question. The master, like a good teacher, corrects him and tells him that when the term ‘good’ is used for him, it should be used as a noun and not as an adjective. Jesus invites the young man to see ‘the Good’ in the person in front of him rather than just a good teacher. Again Jesus corrects and tells him that eternal life is not something he can achieve as a result of ‘his’ doing, nor can it be achieved by ‘doing‘ something. Jesus tries to make him see that eternal life is very close to him and that someone else has done something for him to have eternal life. Did the young man understand the explanation? It was perhaps too much and too early for him to grasp.  

 Christ did not want to put off an honest seeker, so to put a smile on his face, Christ goes on to suggest something in which he was good at. He points out to him the shortcut, the common way to eternal life and tells him, “Keep the commandments” ( Mt. 19.17). The young man was an expert in the knowledge and in the meticulous application of the commandments given by Moses. The young man is almost testing the knowledge of Jesus when in return he asks, “Which ones?”( Mt.19.18).  Christ reminds him,  six out of the Ten Commandments, especially those that have something to do with one’s neighbor. With a tinge of pride and self-conceit the young man is quick to respond, “I have kept all these. What do I still lack ?”( Mt.19. 20).

Christ had a good knowledge of this young man. He appreciated his efforts and hard work and gives him full marks for his knowledge and the practice of the Old Testament Commandments. He had tried and seemed to have succeeded in keeping the Commandments of Moses. If we want a candidate from the Old Testament for canonization clearly the young man is a front runner because we are told in the Gospel of Mark, “Jesus looked at him and loved him”(Mk.10:21). No one can be more suitable for the altars than the one  Christ loves.

The young man is in search for more. He wants to do more. He loves challenges. “What do I still lack?” ( Mt.19:20), is a sincere question of one wanting to do good. If Christ had asked him to climb Mount Everest or to codify all the laws in a five-volume work, he was prepared to do so. Anything that he could ‘do’ more he was ready.

But Jesus asks him ‘to be‘ more. Just as Christ told Martha of Bethany that she lacked one thing, the most essential thing, now he tells the young man what he lacks is the fundamental, primary, ‘the one thing necessary’ for eternal life. Just as Mary chose to be with Christ, so now Jesus asks the young man, “Follow me” (Mt.19:21). Now that the young man has come to Christ and asked him the most important question, Christ gives him the best way to holiness, “Follow me.” The path to eternal life is following Christ. The path to eternal life is no more just scrupulous keeping the Old Testament laws, but following Christ and doing as he did.“Love as I have loved you” ( Jn13:34), is the New Commandment.

The Old Testament path to perfection that the young man has been following was a path of negation; by not doing some things, by not stealing, not killing, not committing adultery, he could obtain holiness. But from the dawn of the New Testament and the initiation of the new kingdom, perfection is no more a negation but a positive action. Since the Sermon on the Mount, perfection consists in wishing those who do not wish you, ingoing two miles when someone asks for one, in offering the right cheek when someone strikes you on the left,  in giving more than what is asked. , “a good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over” ( Lk.6.35).

The young man wanted a challenge and Christ gives him the challenge.  He points out to him the path to eternal life, invites him to holiness and perfection. “ If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give the money to the poor…then come and follow me” ( Mt 19. 21).   

In the English language, there are ‘active verbs and passive verbs.’ Active verbs involve action and movement. Most of the commandments that Jesus proposes involve initiative, action, movement. It is doing something, it is giving something, it is loving someone and it is following someone.  Go, sell, give, come, follow – all these verbs that involve action, movement. Holiness for Christ is no more a negation but a positive commitment. He summarized all his commandments into that one active verb ‘love’. The young man was an expert in the Old Testament spirituality. Now Jesus invites him to the new way of life, to the New Testament way of life.

Christ invited the apostle Mathew with the same words with which he invited the young man, “Follow me” ( Lk.5:27). Mathew got up, left his money table and followed him. The young man too got up but only to go away. Mark tells us, “he went away sad for he had many possessions”( Mk 10.22). The many possessions he had, stood in the way of following Christ.

Every young person is a rich person, a person of ‘great possessions’. Rich in gifts of both mind and body. Look at the accomplishments of young people in sports, academics, music, arts, in generosity, in commitment. Let not the wealth, the beauty, charm, the talents, the abilities, come in the way of following Christ. The young man of the Gospel went away ‘ sad’. What a sad conclusion to what could have been a great classic love story! What a missed opportunity! Not even the name of this young man is known when he could have been one of the greatest of Saints like Peter or John, with names inscribed on stones and pillars, with Churches and Basilicas dedicated to his name.

Christ continues to call young men and women today to follow him,‘ Go, sell, all you have come and follow me.” It is an invitation to love as he loved, to obey as he obeyed, to experience the greatest of freedom, by giving up all.

                                                                                          -Fr T.V. George sdb