Francis of Assisi was born rich but chose to be poor. In the first 25 years of his life he was a care-free young man. He was handsome, pampered, spoiled, ambitious and vain. But one day, God touched his heart. He was moved to change. His imprisonment and illness caused him to re-evaluate his life and his values.
Suddenly, he lost interest in the worldly life. From a lover of party and pleasure, he decided to give up his possessions. Literally he became a beggar. But there was something different about Francis. He was poor but he was also joyful. He celebrated life! He had nothing, yet he lived as if he had everything. He wanted to mirror the lifestyle of Jesus.
Unexpectedly, he changed the world by his example. He was just a lay person. He introduced a revolutionary way of thinking: anyone can follow the Gospel. One can live simply. Christ can be your joy and he can fill your life!
Today’s gospel (Mk 10:17-30) presents a rich, young man. He felt something was missing in his life. Wanting to do more, he asked Jesus’ advise. But he was sad and hurt by Jesus’ challenge. He was so attached to his riches. He had no courage to give up his wealth. He had little love for Jesus.
We can learn 3 lessons from this young man.
Hesitant. Like the rich, young man we can also be hesitant to follow Christ. We tend to calculate and measure our love. We can be overwhelmed by fear over the future. We lack courage. We make excuses and alibis. We can be reluctant like Moses when God called him to be a leader of his people and was told to go back to Egypt. His first reaction was to hesitate. Feeling he was not qualified enough, he asked God to look for someone else. He doubted his giftedness. But God wanted him to shift from fear to faith. God assured him: “I will be with you!” We need to pray to overcome our hesitation.
Hard. The rich, young man found it hard to follow Christ. He realized he had to give up the things he most loved and cherished. He was hurt by the challenge of the Lord to sell what he had and give the money to the poor. He was not yet ready. He had no guts to obey. Indeed, following Jesus can be hard and painful.
A story is told about Teresa of Avila. One day, travelling to one of her convents, she fell of a horse while crossing a stream. She lost her balance and was almost carried away by the strong current. It cost her a sprain on her foot. In prayer she complained to the Lord: “Lord, why do you make it so difficult for me. I’m doing your work. Why do you need to make me suffer?” Jesus answered: “Don’t complain my daughter, that is how I treat my friends.” Teresa replied: “Now I know why you have so few of them.”
Huge love. The secret in following Jesus is to have a huge love for him. We need to have a big, large, enormous heart for Jesus. His demands are difficult. He requires that we love him with all our heart, soul, strength and will. He wants nothing less – to dedicate our lives to him! To love him more than anything else. When our love is small, we calculate and hesitate. We will give up when the going gets rough. But if our love is big, we can stay even at the foot of the cross. Love makes us do even the impossible. With such a love, Jesus becomes our joy because we know he can fill up our lives.
