Gospel according to Saint Mark 10:17-30:
Just as Jesus was setting out on his journey again, a man ran up, knelt before him and asked, «Good Master, what must I do to have eternal life?». Jesus answered, «Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone. You know the commandments: Do not kill, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not bear false witness, do not cheat, honor your father and mother». The man replied, «I have obeyed all these commandments since my childhood». Then Jesus looked steadily at him and loved him and he said, «For you, one thing is lacking. Go, sell what you have and give the money to the poor, and you will have riches in heaven. Then come and follow me».
On hearing these words, his face fell and he went away sorrowful for he was a man of great wealth. Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, «How hard it is for those who have riches to enter the kingdom of God!». The disciples were shocked at these words, but Jesus insisted, «Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for one who is rich to enter the kingdom of God». They were more astonished than ever and wondered, «Who, then, can be saved?». Jesus looked steadily at them and said, «For humans it is impossible, but not for God; all things are possible with God». Peter spoke up and said, «We have given up everything to follow you». Jesus answered, «Truly, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters, or father or mother, or children, or lands for my sake and for the Gospel, who will not receive his reward. I say to you: even in the midst of persecution he will receive a hundred times as many houses, brothers, sisters, mothers, children, and lands in the present time and in the world to come eternal life».
The Effects of Attachments and their Therapy
Luis CASASUS President of the Idente Missionaries
Rome, October 13, 2024 | XXVIII Sunday in Ordinary Time
Sab 7: 7-11; Heb 4: 12-13; Mk 10: 17-30
I do not know of any religious who has abandoned his or her vocation, nor do I know of a married person who decides to separate from his or her spouse… because he or she has met a millionaire who offers a life of luxury and wealth. However, all those I have seen leave their consecration to God – and those who are leaving it – have one thing in common: they have developed a certain attachment.
The episode in today’s Gospel is complementary to the above observation: he who already has an attachment, like the Rich Young Man, can hardly embrace the kingdom of heaven.
The conclusion is clear: any attachment robs us of our freedom, in such a profound way that it prevents us from walking towards what we most long for, as happened to that young man who acknowledges before Jesus how, in his innermost being, he aspired to eternal life. In fact, surprisingly, Mark says that he knelt before Jesus.
That is why we can say, with all the saints, that the central effort of our prayer is the abnegation of the ego, being able to say “NO” to the tyranny of judgments, desires and the instinct that asks us for unlimited happiness.
Sometimes, coming to this conclusion is very hard and only happens with some tragedy or deep disappointment. This is what happened to a young man whose sister sadly told me about. Until a few weeks ago he was a true skateboarding genius, which “allowed” him to live a bohemian life, with drugs, traveling the world alone and using the much money he earned in fleeting romantic and sexual relationships. Until he broke his leg and thus ended his period of whimsy and selfishness.
But all of us, time and again, fall victim to our attachments. It all starts by making us inflexible: we do not tolerate criticism, opinions different from our own, misunderstandings, small improvisations and changes in schedule, criticism (even the best intentioned), defects (including the most insignificant ones), etc.
At the same time, the ego leads me to construct justifications for not moving away from habits or ways of thinking that truly enslave me and alienate me from others. Here are some typical examples:
* Health: I have to go every day to the gym and then to the pool, to swim and sunbathe, because the doctor told me that this is very healthy. While we have to be docile to doctors’ advice, it is quite another t thing to use it to avoid making the efforts required by my mission.
* My vision, superior to that of others: I must speak insistently about the problems of the world, because those around me do not grasp the gravity of the moment, the importance of being aware of how badly the world is going. To certain people with some intellectual experience, which of course is always limited, this can happen.
* Living a “simple life”: I want to be just another Christian, without getting involved in organizations, communities or groups that always bring problems. All that ends in corruption and I just want to live without hurting anyone.
* The feeling that I already do a lot of good. This could be the case of the Rich Young Man.
This attachment to one’s own image reminds me of the case of a good and authentic Buddhist, who carefully observed the principles of his religion: to be compassionate to everyone and everything, not to intoxicate oneself with alcohol and tobacco, not to engage in disorderly sexual behavior, not to lie and not to be a slave to ambitions. He always sought to advance in the fulfillment of these precepts. A friend told him that he thought he was fanatical and exaggerated and that it did not take that much to be a good Buddhist, adding that he himself fulfilled those precepts and considered himself a good Buddhist. To which, the former replied: My dog does not get drunk, he is not ambitious, he is peaceful and faithful, but I cannot say that he is a true Buddhist.
—ooOoo—
One of the problems with attachments is that they do NOT usually refer to morally pernicious matters; this explains why Christ warns us: If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brothers, and sisters, and even his life, he cannot be my disciple (Lk 14: 26).
Besides being a barrier to relationships with others, attachments prevent us from listening to the voice of the Divine Persons, who call us every day to live in a new way, impossible to predict and imagine. This reminds us of the ancient wisdom of the Book of Ecclesiastes: God made everything beautiful in its time, then put in the human mind the notion of eternity, even though man is unable to understand the work that God does from beginning to end (Eccl 3:11).
What is the way to overcome our attachments? Surely, from the point of view of virtue, it is humility. And from the perspective of the mystical life, of what only God can do in us, it is the gift of wisdom, of which today’s First Reading speaks enthusiastically.
Indeed, such wisdom gives us a realistic, objective perspective of our littleness and the fleeting nature of the world, and at the same time the privilege of being called to be instruments, always humble instruments of course, for the kingdom of heaven. Only the wise person can be humble, because he has an understanding of his place in the world and before the divine gaze.
Let us not believe that humility is simply a virtue exalted in antiquity, alien to the modern world, where so much emphasis has been placed on self-esteem and self-acceptance. In recent years, many scholars of psychology and even business management (D. Robson, B.P. Owens, A. Rego, etc.) have illuminated the value of humility in human relationships, showing the harmony between the knowledge of the human sciences and the genuine spirituality taught by many religions.
As Mother Teresa of Calcutta affirmed, referring to our heart, God cannot fill what is filled with other things.
In fact, it is impossible to live authentic humility, except through union with God. Otherwise, this so-called humility is limited to a passive or inactive life, lacking initiative and afraid to make decisions.
Let us recall a well-known historical example of the relationship between wisdom and humility.
Throughout his long life, Socrates, who looked like a vagabond, had been a paragon of humility. When his friend Chaerephon went to the Delphic oracle to ask if there was anyone wiser than Socrates, through the intercession of the god Apollo, the priestess replied that no one was wiser. To understand the meaning of this divine statement, let us recall that Socrates questioned several people with pretensions to wisdom, and in each case concluded: I am probably wiser than he by this small measure: that I do not pretend to know what I do not know. Thereafter, he devoted himself to the service of the gods by seeking out anyone who might be wise and, “if he is not, showing him that he is not.”
In reality, none of us can be satisfied with our own spiritual life, which is a necessary condition for progress in perfection, in much the same way that a true scientist continually questions the power of established and recognized theories, without ever despising them.
In fact, St. John reminds us that, if we say that we have no sin, the truth is not in us (1 Jn 1: 8).
The Second Reading reminds us today how God judges the desires and intentions of the heart. There is no creature that escapes his gaze. Everything is manifest and uncovered in the eyes of the one to whom we are accountable. This is not a threat, but an excellent piece of advice, born of experience, not to allow ourselves to be dominated by our most solid intellectual convictions or by the desires that seem most justifiable to us. Only God knows us.
Those who are at ease with their life of faith are hopelessly throwing themselves into a mediocrity that will never make them fully happy. Pope Francis, in a telephone call to a group of young Italians on pilgrimage, encouraged them to embrace hope in God and to reject mediocrity: Please do not fall into mediocrity, into that mediocrity that demeans and makes us gray, because life is not gray, life is to bet on great ideas and great things.
In reality, mediocrity is a gray and painful way of losing one’s vocation.
Our attachment to the instinct for happiness endangers the universal vocation to holiness that we have all received, because when we feel the weight of the cross we can react like the Rich Young Man, to whom it seemed too much to sell his possessions and give everything to the poor. If you and I believe that there are no poor at our side, we are denying what the Master once told us: The poor you will always have with you, and you can help them whenever you want (Mk 14: 7).
In reality, Christ offers the Rich Young Man the way to be truly happy, to live the eternal life he sought: to share with the poor the best he had. He could not or would not understand that a good person like him, a living promise for the kingdom of heaven, only bears fruit if the most important thing he possessed dies in his life. It is not a matter of giving alms, but of giving every moment, every fraction of my energy.
It seems appropriate to recall something that our Father Founder once told us, which is the value of good humor in the spiritual life. It is not about laughing or telling funny stories, nor about laughing at others, but about learning to detach ourselves from negative emotions, to contemplate them from afar (a form of education of our ecstasy) and to realize how ridiculous we are when we allow ourselves to be dominated by goods, judgments or desires that we had considered “absolute” or indispensable.
Spiritual good humor is born of true wisdom, which allows us to contemplate the true value and limitations of everything: sad events, successes, our weaknesses and our strengths. When we are able to externalize this good humor, especially when we laugh at ourselves, we are able to get closer to others, because any fear that we might transmit disappears. You get the impression that the Rich Young Man was… too serious.
But, most importantly, spiritual good humor allows me to keep in mind that I have received everything from God. Moreover, if I accept the gift of wisdom, of distinguishing the perfect from the useless, as the First Reading says, with it will come to me all the other goods together.
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In the Sacred Hearts of Jesus, Mary and Joseph,
Luis CASASUS
President
