18 August 2025, Monday of the 20th week, odd year
Judges 2:11-19; Matthew 19:16-22
Homily
In the Prologue to his Rule, St. Benedict describes a symbolic scene in which God passes through the public square and asks, ‘Who desires life?’ The monk for whom Benedict writes his Rule is obviously the one who answers, ‘It is I!’ And at the end of the Rule, at the conclusion of chapter 72, which is the last written by Benedict (chapter 73 having been written earlier as the conclusion of the Rule in its first form), he recommends that ‘we prefer nothing at all to Christ; may he lead us all together to eternal life.’
There is something similar in the Gospel we have just read. The man who addresses Jesus asks him a truly important question that every human being carries in his heart: ‘How can I have eternal life?’
Jesus reminds him of the central core of the Law. Let us note in passing that He leaves aside the first precepts of the Decalogue relating to God and quotes only those relating to one's neighbour, thus indicating very clearly that the eternal life He is interested in is not a life after death that can be earned by the merits of one's actions, but rather the ‘kingdom of God’ that begins here on earth in justice and charity. The man seems a little stung by Jesus' answer and, like a good Pharisee, adds: ‘I have done all these things since I was young.’ -- I have observed the whole Law. I have a clear conscience.‘ He also adds this question, which is undoubtedly rhetorical: ’What else is there for me to do?‘ This legalistic attitude is rebuked by Jesus, who adds: ’One thing you lack: go, sell everything you have, give it to the poor... then come and follow me."
Eternal life is a gift from God. However, in order to receive this gift, we must create within ourselves a void that longs to be filled. The Jewish historian Josephus recounts how the Roman general Pompey, after capturing Jerusalem in 63 BC, walked through the Holy of Holies of the Temple with his aides and found nothing, absolutely nothing. This was the Jewish way of representing the ineffable nature of Yahweh. Similarly, mystics have always considered this emptiness, this ‘nada’ (nothingness), as a necessary condition for being transformed into God, for being saved.
Jesus repeated this message on other occasions, using many figures: ‘Amen, amen, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.’
When Jesus, on His way to Jerusalem, said to the aspiring disciple, ‘Come and follow Me’, He invited him to share in this Paschal mystery. But this presupposes the renunciation of all attachments and desires. He had mentioned this to the other disciples before: no gold, no silver, no copper in your belts, no bag for the day, no spare tunic, no sandals, no staff.
This story tells of Jesus' concrete call to a man. Jesus always calls each person by name. Each of us must discover what our personal call is. But because we are all called to salvation, we are also all called to achieve, in one form or another, a genuine detachment of the heart.
We must first remember that, at this precise moment in the Gospel, Jesus is encountering increasing disbelief and opposition from the Jews and is on his way to Jerusalem, where he will be put to death, as he has already announced on more than one occasion. We must remember this in order to understand the full meaning of his invitation: ‘Come and follow me!’