Dear Brothers and Sisters,
This Word of God helped me a lot and supports me personally. So, I would like to explain a bit how this word gives me hope and helps me to celebrate this Eucharist, since I am who I am. Ultimately, I am a man called to conversion, like you and like everyone here. Sometimes it may seem the priest speaks but is above the word of God, which couldn’t be further from the truth. I need to convert, and I need it today. The world is still very clerical, and people tend to see priests as being god-like and above the normal struggles of life.
Some priests see clearly how the devil wants to destroy them, and one time is before Mass begins, in the sacristy. One priest says a demon whispers to him: ‘You are a hypocrite, who are you to go out there and speak.’ What gives him a certainty and helps him to send this demon to hell is knowing that he is loved by God and so are the people he speaks to. And so, with confidence he goes out to say the Mass. Another one that also happens to me is that at the most solemn moments of the Eucharist the devil brings to mind the worst thoughts you can imagine, and I send him again to hell. Pray for us priests, because we are weak people, and this word invites me to convert. St. Paul says that the parts of the body that are most shameful need to be dressed in a more dignified way. God does the same with people and he dresses them up so that they look better. This is a word that can help us get out of ourselves and get us on a road to change.
Jesus is setting out on a journey and a man runs up to him, with eagerness, and kneels down before him and says, ‘Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?’ I think the question is already poorly done. He said, ‘What do I have to do to inherit eternal life?’ What could he possibly do to inherit eternal life? To inherit something, you don’t need to do anything. The inheritance comes to you; it is not up to you; it is up to someone else who has left something for you in his/her will. So, what is the answer to this question. You do not have to do anything, absolutely nothing. The gospel begins with this question and ends saying for men it is impossible but for God nothing is impossible. In this domain, men and women cannot do anything.
You can do absolutely nothing to inherit eternal life. Of course, someone needs to die in order to inherit something. Who is the one who dies? The one who has eternal life. And who has eternal life? Only God so he has to die so that you may inherit this new life. What a great news. This is marvelous news that the Lord gives us so that you can be happy, and heaven can be opened. The owner of heaven, of eternal life, had to die. He died for you and rose from the dead and is alive so that you can be with him in heaven. The Lord opened heaven for us to enjoy it with you and so you can be with him.
This gospel is wonderful. The whole dialogue with this man is exactly like all of us. It is only at the end that we find out that he is rich, but only in material things. However, he goes running to Jesus because he lacks something. He is missing heaven; he is missing eternal life; he lacks happiness and that is why he is anxious. What can I do to inherit eternal life? He clearly believes that he earned his money and his assets because of his efforts. He thinks he can have eternal life and can gain heaven on his own strength; but he cannot. So, Jesus plays a little trick on him. Did you realize it?
He says he fulfills the commandments and how does Jesus begin the commandments when he announces them to this young man. He starts, you shall not kill, thou shall not commit adultery, thou shall not steal, do not give false testimony, honor your parents, and that is as far as Jesus go. It is very curious since these are not all the commandments, which ones are missing, the first ones, the ones that have to do with our relationship with God. I have fulfilled everything since my youth, he says. Everything he has done here he has done well. There has been no killing, no adultery, no stealing. But something is missing. Jesus tells him that he is lacking one thing: to love the Lord above all things. Therefore, to show his love for God sell everything you have and give the money to the poor and come and follow me. It is beautiful this gospel because the Lord says to everyone that it is necessary to risk. If you don’t risk, you will never have faith.
Faith doesn’t come, all at once. It is necessary that there be a moment where everyone risks something. I am not saying what it is. Each one has to decide what the Lord would want him to risk so he can get out of himself, sell his goods and give his money to the poor. This doesn’t mean that he is now better than anyone else. As St. Paul says, ‘If you speak in human and angelic languages, if you give away all your money to the poor, if you have faith in order to move mountains, and do not have love, you are nothing. It is not that doing these things are not good, but it does not earn you faith, because faith is given by God. Not even selling your goods and giving the money to the poor gives you power to love. It helps you a lot, a great amount, and someday I hope you will experience this and see the providence of God. When you really see that God provides that he is the one who really loves you. When a person loves you, he provides for you. When God loves you, he provides for you, this is your power. You can love because you have felt loved by God. This is what is tremendous, although it is impossible for us.
We can’t even sell a comb and give money to the poor because we are very attached to material things, to money, etc. We are stingy, very cheap, very proud, but nothing is impossible for God. You are a rich and very wealthy man. The rich man is the one how has everything and thinks he is God, but how poor is he. That is why Jesus says, how difficult it is for a rich man to enter the kingdom of Heaven, because he believes he can earn the kingdom, and he can buy whatever is needed. But the kingdom of God cannot be bought. We have already been bought and God is the one who bought us and gives it to us, freely, gratis. That is to experience the providence of God; something is given to you completely gratis. Have you had this kind of experience?
That is why if you are a lustful man, if today you are a proud man, be at peace for the Lord can make you a chaste man, a humble man, because God can do everything. All things are done by him. We are very poor in works of eternal life, we are poor in loving, we are poor in understanding others. We are rich in speaking bad of others, rich in thinking badly of others, rich in loving ourselves, but how poor we are in loving each other.
There are many different types of riches. The Lord asks us today to disarm yourself, to be naked in front of the Lord. What do you have that makes you rich? In what things do you take pride in yourself, sticking out your chest? The Lord says to you: Sacrifice it because I love you when you are poor, I love you humble, so that you can realize that you have eternal life that I give to you as a gift. You don’t have to buy anything. This man went away sad. I hope you don’t go away sad. I hope you go away very happy. You have a father that leaves you a wonderful inheritance-eternal life in heaven.
I want you to leave happy with the father you have who wants to help you through his son, Jesus Christ, our brother. He came to help us become a new man, a holy man, a Christian man, able to love, with the power to forgive. The Lord gives us the chance to expel demons, to enter the kingdom of God, which is to love.
Do you want to experience the kingdom of God? You can every time that you forgive, every time you ask for forgiveness, every time you give your life for someone else, every time you are generous, every time you give the other what he asks for, every time you don’t go to work knowing that God provides.
You can experience the kingdom every time you don’t steal, every time you don’t sleep with that woman, every time the Lord gives you a chaste heart. You can experience a joy that the richest man on earth doesn’t have. This joy comes from heaven. The joy that you experience in this Eucharist is a foretaste, an appetizer of heaven. Christ is made present in this Eucharist who comes to enter your life, enter your body, to love each one and be one flesh with you. This is heaven. Christ who is in heaven, is within you, in each one of us.