In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, one God, Amen.
It would seem evident, dear brothers and sisters in Christ, there are many in our society searching: searching for love, searching for happiness, searching for fulfilment, searching for joy. They are searching for meaning to their lives, something to make sense of these “threescore years and ten” (Psalm 89:10 ʟxx), something bigger than what they are. And they look to hobbies, or to gym membership, or to self-help books, or to so-called gurus, or to alcohol, or to drugs—anything and everything which might make their place in our universe a little more understood. They are seeking honestly, they are seeking earnestly, and leap at the next fad which seems to work for them, at least for a little while.
A young man came earnestly to the Lord seeking fulfilment. He had kept the Law strictly but had come to realise it was not enough—a new rabbi had come from Galilee whose fame had grown among the Jews, Jesus of Nazareth. And here, in the region of Judea beyond the Jordan, (Matthew 19:1) he could make his request. “Good Teacher,” says he, “what good deed must I do, to have eternal life?” A detail recorded in Mark’s Gospel, (10:17–31) but neither here nor in Luke, (18:18–30) tells us Christ looked at him and loved him. (v. 21) The Lord did not treat him with contempt nor derision but engaged with him.
The Lord does not dismiss the question, but turns it towards the one thing needful, turns it towards himself, and starts to reveal—slowly and gently—who he really is. “Why do you call me good?” says the Lord, “No one is good but One, that is, God. If you would enter life, keep the commandments.” And the man replies, “All these I have observed; what do I still lack?” And the Lord reveals a hard saying to the young man, since the Gospel is hard and we cannot sugarcoat it, “If you would be perfect, go, sell what you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.” And the young man went away sorrowful, not so much that he had many possessions but that his many possessions had him: he himself was the one who was possessed.
And we turn to those in our world who are searching and seeking, who may have heard of Jesus as a prophet and a guru but reject him: because they see in Christians, in you and in me, those who are still possessed by their possessions, who see the wealthy as role models and the deprived as those to be pitied, the rich as benefactors and the poor as mistrusted recipients of charity: the former arrives at my door with much fanfare while the latter must join the end of the queue. I am possessed by my possessions and the Lord looks at me lovingly and says to me, “Go, sell what you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.”
This hard saying must be for us a transformation, we must give up what possesses us that those who are searching for truth and beauty, like the young man in today’s Gospel, may come into contact not with a mere man who has the latest fad but with the living God and that they may receive eternal life. For when we accept the Gospel, when we are prepared to be transformed by the death and Resurrection of our Lord, then those who are seeking will come and encounter the divine.
My dear brothers and sisters in Christ, let us give up our riches for the sake of Christ, let us offer ourselves to our neighbour for the sake of Christ, let us do all that is necessary to follow Christ. “With men,” says the Lord, “this is impossible.” Not just complicated, not just challenging, not just difficult, but impossible. By our own powers it is impossible. But the Lord gives us a consolation, “but with God all things are possible.” When we are close to the Lord, through prayer, through asceticism, through his Church, when we are not possessed by our possessions but let them be a glorification of God, then “all things are possible.” May this be, by the prayers of the Theotokos, the Holy, Glorious and All-praised Twelve Apostles and all the saints.
To our risen and glorified God and Saviour Jesus Christ be all praise, worship and honour, together with his unoriginate Father and the All-holy, Good and Life-giving Spirit. Amen.
Brethren, I would remind you in what terms I preached to you the Gospel, which you received, in which you stand, by which you are saved, if you hold it fast—unless you believed in vain. For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures, that He was buried, that He rose on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures, and that He appeared to Cephas, then to the Twelve. Then He appeared to more than five hundred brethren at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep. Then He appeared to James, then to all the Apostles. Last of all, as to one untimely born, He appeared also to me. For I am the least of the Apostles, unfit to be called an Apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me was not in vain. On the contrary, I worked harder than any of them, though it was not I, but the grace of God, which is with me. Whether then it was I or they, so we preach and so you believed.
— First Corinthians 15:1–11
At that time, a young man came up to Jesus, kneeling and saying, “Good Teacher, what good deed must I do, to have eternal life?” And He said to him, “Why do you call Me good? No one is good but One, that is, God. If you would enter life, keep the commandments.” He said to Him, “Which?” And Jesus said, “You shall not kill, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not bear false witness, honour your father and mother, and you shall love your neighbour as yourself.” The young man said to Him, “All these I have observed; what do I still lack?” Jesus said to him, “If you would be perfect, go, sell what you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.” When the young man heard this, he went away sorrowful; for he had great possessions. And Jesus said to his disciples, “Truly, I say to you, it will be hard for a rich man to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.” When the disciples heard this they were greatly astonished, saying, “Who then can be saved?” But Jesus looked at them and said to them, “With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” And Jesus said to his disciples, “Truly, I say to you, it will be hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.” When the disciples heard this they were greatly astonished, saying, “Who then can be saved?” But Jesus looked at them and said to them, “With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.
— Matthew 19:16–26