To inherit eternal life

As so often, the word of God challenges us to make a choice between two radically opposed conditions of life: namely, between wisdom, personified as a female figure, and worldly wealth. Can the Christly way of walking down life’s highways and byways — you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me — inspire in us an indifference with regard to any priceless gem … and all gold … and silver?

The preference for wisdom expressed in the first reading is tested in the gospel. All three synoptic gospels recount the moment in which a rich man has to make a choice. He is plainly energetic and by no means superficial in his way of thinking. He has realised that wealth does not satisfy the inner self and he longs for something less tangible but more permanent: what must I do to inherit eternal life?

Perhaps at the start of the dialogue Jesus sees the man as yet another cynical opportunist out to test him. He snaps at him, answering his question brusquely. But the man is not put off: his anguished integrity and his need turn the tables on Jesus. Teacher, all these I have observed from my youth. He is like the young Saul/Paul, blameless before the Law but deeply unsatisfied: as to righteousness under the law blameless, but whatever gain I had, I counted as loss … (Phil 3:6f). Perhaps it is the rich man’s longing heart that “converts” Jesus to an entirely different way of seeing him: Jesus looking upon him loved him. Only Mark’s gospel includes this detail. Loved by Jesus, and on the brink of choosing the wisdom of discipleship, he falls away, because the clutch of wealth grips him too tightly.

Is this a moment of failure, for the man himself and for Jesus? The reaction of Jesus suggests an animated disappointment at the man’s incapacity to seize the salvific moment. The twice-repeated how hard it is! together with the striking image of the camel and the eye of a needle, evoke the twice-mentioned amazement of the disciples, amazed and exceedingly astonished.

Is this then a moment of failure? We don’t know what happened to the rich young man (only Matthew’s version actually tells us that he was young). But we might speculate that this was not the end of the story. With men it is impossible, but not with God; for all things are possible with God. However compromised we may be before the radical choice between wealth and wisdom, maybe the fact that Jesus has looked upon us and loved us means that what seems impossible with men may not in fact be so. In the final words of the first reading, there is even the light suggestion that instead of “either/or” there may be “both/and”: All good things came to me along with her (wisdom), and in her hands uncounted wealth.

By Fr Edmund Power, osb