Today's Gospel

Pushing Jesus

Hi, I'm Matthew Kelly and welcome back to Radical and Relevant, where each day we read the gospel together, we listen to the voice of God in our lives. Remember, we're looking for a word or a phrase or an idea that the Holy Spirit uses to capture our attention. Today's reading comes from the Gospel of Matthew, chapter 19, verses 16 through 22. And behold, one came up to Jesus saying, "Teacher, what good deed must I do to have eternal life?" And Jesus said to him, "Why do you ask me about what is good? There is only one who is good. If you would enter life, keep the commandments." He said to him, "Which commandments?" And Jesus said, "You shall not kill. You shall not commit adultery. You shall not steal. You shall not bear false witness. Honor your father and your mother. And you shall love your neighbor as yourself." The young man said to him, "All these I have observed, what do I still lack?" And 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 then come and follow me." When the young man heard this, he went away sorrowful for he had great possessions.

It's a fantastic reading. It's an epic reading. It's one of those readings that everyone knows, everyone's familiar with. When you read it, what do you automatically think about? Do you see yourself as the rich young man? I think we should because obviously it's not just about worldly riches, but even if it was, we live incredible lives, even the poorest among us compared to the poorest in the world. And we live incredible lives compared to kings and queens of 100 years ago, 200 years ago, 300 years ago. We live material lives significantly better than them. Even you know those of us who are just struggling to get by and that sort of thing. And so we are the rich young man materially, but we are the rich young man in other ways as well. What's important to me is that Jesus' first instinct wasn't to say to this guy, "Sell everything you've got. Give it to the poor and come follow me." The rich young man kept pushing Jesus. He kept pushing Jesus. Teacher, this is the first. And behold, one came up to him saying, "Teacher, what good deed must I do to have eternal life?" And Jesus says, "Why do you ask me what is good? There's only one who is good." He says, "If you enter life, keep the commandments." Now, the 10 commandments would have been known to everybody at that time. But the young man pushes him. The young man could have walked away at that point and said, "Great keep the 10 commandments. I'm living the 10 commandments. I'm going to keep living the 10 commandments. Good to go." But he doesn't. He presses Jesus. He says, "Which commandments?" Jesus names them. He could have walked away then. Could have walked away and said, "Yep, they're the ones I thought. I'm living the commandments. I'm going to keep living the commandments. Good to go." But he doesn't.

What does he do? He pushes Jesus again. He pushes Jesus again. What does he say? He says, I've observed all of these. What else? So it's only then. It's only after he pushes Jesus three times does Jesus say, "All right. If you want to be perfect, go sell everything you have, give it to the poor, and come follow me." And so I think it's interesting that he keeps pushing Jesus, pushing Jesus. What's beautiful about the rich young man? I think what's beautiful is his desire for heaven. His desire for eternal life is immense, right?

When was the last time you sat down with God and said, "God, what do I have to do to be with you in heaven for eternity? What do I have to do?" It's a beautiful story. There's a beautiful soul here. And does he go away sorrowful? Yes. But we don't know the end of the story, right? Did he go away sorrowful? Yeah. Was he sulking for a couple of days? Probably. I don't know. Was he trying to ignore what God said to him for a month or a year or 10 years? I don't know.

Did at some point, he turned back to God and said, "All right, I'm going to sell everything, give it to the poor, and go and follow Jesus." We don't know. Do we hope? Yeah, we hope. But it is a beautiful soul. Let's never forget that. And that yearning, that seeking, that pressing of Jesus came from a beautiful place in his soul. And let's nurture that place in our soul. Have a great day, and remember, Be Bold, Be Catholic.