Summary: I straighted a book shelf. I dusted the desk top. I cleaned out the top drawer of my desk, straightened two picutres, and desperatly checked email four times within an hour. Perhaps for the first time in my memory the “inbox” was empty: not even some spam! I studied nine commentaries, played the piano for fifteen minutes, and had a third cup of coffee. I prayed; but this complicated and perplexing Gospel does not go away. I learned a lot things in process about myself and Mark’s Gospel. I discovered that the older I get the more I feel what that man felt: there has to be something more. I want eternal life, and this isn’t it. Is there something yet I must do, or is perhaps something I must become. Is it really possible to “do” something (like earning points) to possess eternal life or is it not a gift for which I must become receptive. I discovered to my shame that the longer I live as a priest, the more I sometimes feel like the disciples sometimes in weariness and weakness wondering: “What’s in it for me?” How shameful those apostles must have felt when their thoughts were so exposed by Peter, that blabber-mouth! I suspect that as soon as it said it, he wished he hadn’t.About Mark’s Gospel I learned that no where does it say that this was a “young” man. For years I always thought it did. The only reason to think that he was “young” is probably that he was running. I don’t run much anymore. I learned to consider that this text invites us to think about two kinds of wealth: material and spiritual. I was reminded how the First or Old Testament considered wealth a proof that one was righteous leaving the poor desperate for any salvation. If poverty then is a curse, why would Jesus demand it of the rich man? If it is necessary, then why give it to the poor making them more poor? The potential for conflict between material wealth and spiritual wealth cannnot be ignored. That man is both rich and poor: so spiritually poor in spite of his great wealth that he cannot do what is necessary. He cannot do what the master asks of him.Yet in spite of all the complexity both in our lives and in Mark’s Gospel, there are a couple of things that do not go away, and will not be avoided for long. They spring from the two questions raised in this story first by the rich man and then by the Apostles.“Is this all there is?” That is what the man is really asking as he lives with all his wealth and comforts knowing that those have not provided what he seeks nor satisfied his deepest hunger. He knows there must be more, so he goes to Jesus the man who feeds all hungers and satisfies all thirsts. There he discovers that he has failed to ask another very important question: “How much is enough?” The ability to answer that question is the first sign of spiritual wealth. Then there is that second question asked by Peter that reveals a shameful poverty of spirit: “What’s in it for me?” Mark puts questions before us today.They are good tools to measure our material and spiritual wealth and poverty.“What’s in it for me?”“Is this all there is?”Leading to the big question: “How much is enough?”I find it interesting that in his usual way, Mark does not give that rich man a name. Failing to do so allows us to stand in his place. I like to think that this rich man’s turning away is not the end of his story, and that years later he may have picked up some early manuscript of Mark’s Gospel and recognized himself in these verses, stood up right then and said: “Enough” and let go of all the things that held him bound and unable to follow Jesus to Jerusalem. It isn’t always material stuff like cars and clothing, homes, accessories and gadgets that we can’t let go of. Sometimes the attachments that hold us back are anger and revenge, pride and stubborness, grudges and forgiveness withheld.Perhaps today we can see ourselves in this Gospel holding on to that image of Jesus who looks at us with love, and finally say: “Enough” and then surrender reaching for the treasure of his friendship.
