On this day in the year following the end of World War II, The play "To Have and Have Not" by Ernest Hemingway premiered on the Lux Soap Flakes Radio Theatre. The radio production starred Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall, who had recently announced their wedding engagement. The same day, I was starring in my own production, my birth, at Vanderbilt Hospital to two wonderful parents. They sacrificed over the subsequent years to ensure that I received a top-flight education, opening doors for opportunity. They passed on to me many positive values. At the end of their lives, they left me a legacy, an inheritance which continued to help me.
In today's gospel [Mk 10: 17-31] a young man asks Jesus how to inherit eternal life. That term in Latin is percipeo which can have more than one meaning, but the original Greek, kliranameo, is unforgiving: it means exactly what it means in English. The young fellow knows he is a child of God and he wants to enjoy the abundant life that should be his own birthright. Jesus replies by reciting the Commandments; he ad libs an extra one but the young man apparently doesn't catch it. Rather, he replies that he has done every one of those commandments, all of which are relational. Speaking in modern terms, we might say he treats other people right. He is a good person, and he should be doing fine. But he isn't. He knows perfectly well that something is missing, something that is interfering with having a meaningful, contented, fulfilling life, with true peace of mind.
Jesus identifies what is standing between the young man and right relationship with God. The problem is attachment to wealth. Eternal life describes the bond between the believer and the enduring values of the Kingdom of God. It describes relationship between humans and Christ, bringing us personal experience of the living, loving Spirit of God. Passion for possessions has permanently blocked the total surrender to God that God seeks, and the life commitment binding followers of the Lord. Jesus tells the young man to sell what he has, give to the poor, and follow. That command is unacceptable to the rich fellow and he goes away sad, and unsaved. Jesus has previously taught against accumulation of wealth and warned that one cannot serve two masters.
Our own Archbishop Desmond Tutu on one occasion was asked why the African Christians were fervent in a way that western Christians aren't. Easy, said Tutu, the poor don't have anything in between themselves are God, westerners are rich. That is an important word to us as to how we steward what we have received, to ensure that nothing outranks God in our hierarchy of values.
Later, back at the ranch, Jesus says that it is easier for a rope to go through the eye of needle than for wealthy people to enter the Kingdom of God. (Recent linguistic scholarship favours the translation, 'rope' rather than the traditional 'camel.') The disciples, who as good Jews have been bought up on prosperity gospel, are blown away, wondering if all rich folks are doomed, but Jesus assures them that anything is possible for God.
We too can be good people, live pious lives, and treat others well, and still miss the boat. Jesus beckons us to make a course correction into eternal life.
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