'Follow me’

The calling of the twelve apostles and the training that Jesus imparts and their life together with Jesus as the animator, is still the best manual on religious life. In the Gospel of Mark we are told that Jesus  called the twelve, “to be with him and to be sent out” ( Mk.3. 14 ). The goal of Religious Life still remains the same. We are called to be with him, learn from him and to be sent out to others. Religious are people consecrated to Christ and sent on a mission. Consecration and Mission are integral part of Religious Life

.  Again Mark tells us that Jesus called those whom ‘he wanted’( Mk 3.13). The crisis of Religious Life today is that  many are on a mission without knowing who has send them and many are not sure of what their mission is. Many  of those who are genuinely  called are  mixed up with those who have come on their own. The apostolic community that Jesus formed was not free from tensions, all were not of the same temperament nor were they from the same background. Going back to the Scripture will help us to discern, to clarify and to prioritize.

In the encounter of Christ with the rich young man and his invitation to follow him ( Mt.19: 16 – 23) we have perhaps a clear preposition in precise words on what it means to follow Jesus. This passage  can serve as a foundation, a prologue,  for a discussion on this topic. 

The young man 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 it is by following him he will find 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 short cut, 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 he in return 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 the hard work and gives him full marks for his knowledge and the practice of the Old Testament Commandments. He had tried and seem 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 Mathew, “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 most important way, to holiness. ‘Follow me’. The path to eternal life is following Christ. The path to eternal life is no more just scrupulously   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,  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, in  going 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 is looking for, 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 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 Old Testament spirituality. Now Jesus invites him to the new way of life, to the New Testament way of life.

In the Parable of the Talents, I have often wondered why the man with one talent was punished. He kept the one talent safe and returned it to the master. In trading with the talents, the other two risked loosing even what they had. The Master praised and rewarded those who took the risk.  This is the New Testament way. He wants us to trade. He wants us to gain. He wants us to take risks. He wants us to go two miles when asked to go one. He wants us to give the coat as well when they someone asks for your  shirt, he wants us to wish those who don’t wish us, he wants us to love not just our neighbor but enemies too, he invites us to give “a good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over” ( Lk.6.35).

Today we find supermarkets titled MORE. I suppose it is titled MORE because they want to suggest to us that we can get more than our money’s worth. The Christian supermarket too is titled MORE. Christ invites us to love more, to give  more and  to live more.  In his first public appearance at Cana he gave  wine ‘up to the brim’.  At the Jacob’s well the Samaritan woman asked for a bucket of water and he gave her a perennial spring. In gratitude to Simon for lending his  boat he gave  it back filled with fish to the sinking point. For the generosity of the boy who gave two fish and five loaves, he returned twelve baskets full after the five thousand had eaten. The New Testament Commandment is, ‘Love as I have loved you’. The New Law is selling all one has, it is giving ‘to the brim’, it is loving  as Jesus loved. Jesus invites the young man to this new way, the way of the Beatitude, when he says, “ Go, sell all you have give the money to the poor and come and follow me”.

In the parable of the Treasure in the field, the  farmer sells all  he had to buy the treasure. The  merchant in search of a precious pearl sells all he has to possess the precious pearl. Jesus invites the young man to give up everything and follow him. He wanted eternal life. Jesus  invites to see in him, “the way, the truth and life”.

Religious Life primarily is a joyful renunciation of all one has, to possess a treasure. There is joy in renunciation.  Renunciation is for sake of possessing someone or something. One follows Christ so that one can have a hundred fold more in this life and everlasting life in the next.   It would be a tragedy, if after selling and renouncing,  one did not possess the treasure.

The vows that religious profess are means to follow Christ closely. By Profession of the vow of Chastity, one gives up marriage and a family to have hundreds more of brothers and sisters, mothers and  children. By this vow one is set free to love especially the sick and the poor.  By the vow poverty, one gives up one’s legitimate right to own wealth, so that one is set free to work for his kingdom. At the service of the kingdom one comes to possess a hundred times more. By vow of  obedience, one gives up one’s  will, to be free to do what God wants and to go where he sends.  Christ was obedient to his father, he had no place even to lay his head, he was free to love the sick, the children, the poor, men and women.  It is in imitation of Christ, it is to experience total freedom, to be able to love all, to be at the service of kingdom that one renounces a family through chastity, one’s free will through obedience, and one’s legitimate right to property through poverty. These are values good in itself, but one renounces them up for MORE. In obedience to his invitation every religious renounces, sells, all that one has  through the profession of the  vows  and gives oneself to  the poor in imitation of Christ. 

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, in academics, in music, in arts, in generosity, in commitment. Let not the wealth, the beauty, the charm, the  talents, the abilities, come in the way of young people from following Christ. The young man of the Gospel went away ‘ sad’. Nothing but following his call would make him happy in life. What a sad conclusion to what could 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 his father, to experience the greatest of freedom, by giving up all.

This is the first, primary and fundamental call to a committed life. All the rest that has been written or said is only commentaries and foot notes.                           -Fr T.V. George sdb