In the gospel story today we have this beautiful story of the rich young man who approached Jesus. This is one of the great sorties in the NT and a story, which influenced the life of St. Pope John Paul II, and he used this story a lot in his writings. In this story we have the essence of Christian morality. There are 3 major themes, which we can see in this story.

1. There is a deep hunger for eternal life in all of us. We have many hungers, we hunger for food, we hunger for money, we hunger for recognition, success, but there is a deeper hunger we all have and that is the hunger for something more, for eternal. There is something in our nature. St. Augustine says: our hearts were made for you Lord and they will not rest until they rest in you. The young man runs to Jesus (note the enthusiasm) and asks: What must I do to inherit eternal life? To give credit to the young man he comes to the right place. He doesn’t go to Google; he goes to Jesus, who is the Son of God, the Son of Divine Love. How does Jesus respond? He list the commandments, you must not kill, steal, covet, commit adultery, etc.
2. If you want to live in friendship with God there are certain things that you must cut out of your life. If you are interested in walking the way of love you must not kill, tell lies, steal, honour your father and mother, do not spread false allegations, etc. Sometimes when it comes to the church people will criticise the church when it starts saying, you must avoid certain things. Analogy of our physical health If you go to your doctor what must I do to be healthy? Do you smoke well you have to stop smoking, do you eat junk food you must stop that, do you sit around, you must stop doing these things. We accept this from our doctor but sometimes we will not accept it from the church. The rich young man replied: I’ve kept all of these; he was a good person. Go and sell what you have.
3. God is nothing but love. If you want to walk in the path of radical love then: sell what you have and give the money to the poor. Analogy of our physical health. We’ve followed all the recommendations of our GP: we’ve stopped smoking, we stopped eating fatty foods; but there is something more I want to do: I’d love to run a marathon. This is serious commitment. Serious commitment for the young man in the gospel today. The gospel ends in one of the saddest scenes in the whole gospel: “he went away sad…” In our relationship with Jesus maybe Jesus is telling us there is something that you have to do. It is very hard to let go. Will you let go, or will you go away sad like the young man in the gospel today?

Taylor Caldwell has a book written about the journeys of St. Luke (‘Healer of body and soul’). In this book he mentions that Luke one day wanted to make a journey, no boat available. This rich person came up to Luke and said he was embarking next day and could take him to wherever he wanted to go. On the journey, St. Luke realised that this man was very wealthy; he had a rather big boat with plenty of commodities on board. As they were talking, they spoke about Jesus. The rich man said he was very sad because he had an opportunity on one occasion to be a follower of Christ, but let is pass. ‘Why can’t you go now?’ asked Luke; ‘It’s too late’ retorted the rich man, ‘they crucified Him’. How many times do we let chances pass by in which we can do something positive for Christ?