THE WAY TO HEAVEN

Mt 19:16-22

The gospel reading of today presents to us a young man willing to know what to do in order to gain Heaven. He comes up to Jesus. He is a good, solid, upright, well-instructed, devout young Jew. This is clear from the conversation. Jesus reminds him of the Ten Commandments which then, as now, were the bases of a good life. The young man replies very simply: these he has kept from his earliest youth. This is not a boast, but matter of fact.

There is no suggestion that Jesus either disbelieves or disapproves of what he says or the way he says it. But he finds that this goodness is not enough. There is one thing you lack, he says. Here comes the bombshell. Go, sell everything you own and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, and follow me.

This passage gives us important points.

1) Being good is not a sufficient condition for being a disciple of Jesus. There's something even more fundamental than goodness and without this you can't even get started on the journey to the Kingdom Jesus proclaimed. We can be as good as we like, but if we think we're sufficient unto ourselves, then the God Jesus proclaimed is shut out of our lives.

Many believers are trying to live their Christian life by finding out what good things they can do. They think the more good things they do, the more God will love them. This is what the young man thought. He thought he was a pretty good person, but in case he had neglected doing anything, he wanted to find out what else he could do to earn God’s favor. The young man thinks whatever hard task Jesus might pick out for him he is fully capable to accomplish it in his own strength. But as Jesus indicates in the next verse, there’s nothing inside of man that he can do - he’s not good enough. The point Jesus is trying to make here is that no one is good enough - only God.

2) The second point is what Jesus says to the young man: If you wish to be perfect, go, sell what you have and give to the poor. Then come and follow me. First, give up everything that will hinder you from serving Christ. Sell it all; get rid of it. Whatever it is, we have to let it go. What is it that you are hanging onto? Pride, possessions,  immorality? Let go of it if it prevents you from serving Christ.

Second, Jesus said "come." We must come to him. There is no other way to please God if not to come to Jesus. Third, Jesus says "follow me." That’s what we must do: following Jesus; walk in his ways; allow him to lead us and guide us. We must not strive to go our own way, but rather learn how to follow him. His way is the much better way. Sometimes we think our way looks pretty good, but we need to follow Jesus because his way is always better.

To sum up, to become a disciple means ceasing to find the basis for one's life in earthly things and finding the basis for life in God alone." Notice that the rich man’s problem was not that he had great possessions. His real problem was that these riches had become his god. They were more important to him than serving Christ.

The gospel message for us today is that we must let go of our individualistic predisposition and become more concerned of others, that we must let go of our accumulative tendencies and become more generous. We should never forget that to be excessively possessive is often accompanied by greed and avarice, although having less does not necessarily mean that one is freely predisposed to God.

To go back to the question posed by the rich young man to Jesus in today’s gospel, to gain eternal life, one does not need to live a “perfect life” but living the “perfectly focused” life. We all desire to possess but let us not allow ourselves to be possessed by our own possessions. There is that desire in us to amass wealth, to gain power, to make ourselves popular.

·         Heaven has ho shortcut. We must build our spiritual life on the basics, using the “ordinary” as a way to holiness. The young man expected Jesus to reveal some novel and extraordinary means to attain eternal life. Jesus simply said: “Obey the commandments.”

·         Heaven has no hidden path. Jesus speaks about what is public revelation: The Ten Commandments. Spirituality is living one’s faith in a wholistic way. The young man, frustrated at the ordinary answer of Jesus regarding attaining eternity, went further: “Which of the commandments?” Jesus went on to enumerate not one, but all the commandments.

·         Heaven is not so much gained by accumulating merits, but by a process of self-effacement. We must be detached even from good possessions. Or only claim to heaven is God’s graciousness, not any merit on our part. Heaven is measurable fruit is growth in charity and simplicity. Jesus, in the end, said that if the young man wanted to be perfect, he should go sell his many possessions, and give to the poor.

Story: Once there was a man who didn’t know whether he wanted to go to hell or to heaven. He was a very pragmatic person. He wanted to know what hell was and what heaven was because he didn’t like to be deceived. He kept on praying to God to show him hell and heaven so he could decide where to go.

Finally, God answered him and showed him hell. Satan welcomed him and honoured his guest with a big banquet. God showed him heaven and also tendered a banquet for him. After the two visits, the man decided that, with all the enjoyment from sin he can have on earth, and since he did not perceive any big difference between heaven and hell, he preferred hell. So he committed all kinds of sins, left and right.

When he died, he went to hell as expected. As soon as he entered hell, Satan yelled at him and put a chain around his neck and arm and tied a huge metal ball to his feet. The man asked Satan, “Why are you doing this to me? The first time I came you were all kind and gentle and you welcomed me with a banquet.” Satan answered, “The first time you were here, you were a tourist, now you are an immigrant.”

We are tourists, but not simple tourists, we are pilgrims. We are always on the go. We don’t belong to this earth.