In today’s Gospel, the rich young man approached Jesus and asked him, “Teacher, what good must I do to gain eternal life?” Jesus responded, saying, “Why do you ask me about the good? There is only One who is good.” Saint John Paul II reflected that “[to] ask about the good, in fact, ultimately means to turn towards God, the fullness of goodness” (John Paul II, Veritatis splendor, 9). Additionally, Bishop Robert Barron said that for Saint John Paul II “to grasp the meaning of this story is to understand the central dynamic of the New Testament, the free response to Jesus’ offer of eternal life.”
In life, we obey the law so as to avoid the consequences of breaking the law, the most severe consequence of which is losing our freedom. And so, to avoid these consequences, we freely submit ourselves to just laws. In a way, we are like the rich young man, asking what good we must do to preserve our freedom according to the law - local, state, and federal. If we are so cognizant of obeying the law to live in freedom, then should we not do the same when it comes to preserving our soul for eternal life? For this reason, we should follow the rich young man’s lead and ask Jesus, “Lord, what good must I do to gain eternal life?”
What is the good that we must do then? Bishop Robert Barron shares this insight: “What John Paul II saw was that human freedom is realized in a surrender to the truth of God, and that that truth is none other than a God who hands over his life to us.” In other words, we must “turn towards God, the fullness of goodness” (Saint John Paul II). “Jesus is the infinite good that the soul wants. He is God’s own self made flesh” (Bishop Robert Barron). Jesus tells us how we can do this in today’s Gospel: “If you wish to enter into life, keep the commandments. . . If you wish to be perfect, go, sell what you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”
The first question that we must ask ourselves then is, “do I desire to gain eternal life”? Bishop Robert Barron said that “if you want to live in friendship with God, there are certain things that you must cut out of your life. Friendship with God means a life of love; therefore, those things that egregiously violate love have to be eliminated. . . God is nothing but love, straight through, and therefore the life of friendship with him, in the richest sense, is a life of total, self-forgetting love. . . The spiritual life, at the highest pitch, is about giving your life away.” And so, if our answer is, “yes, I desire to gain eternal life,” then we must ask God for the courage and humility to do whatever it takes to do the “good [we must do] to gain eternal life,” even if it means submitting ourselves to the commandments and laws of our Lord of our own freewill and in obedience to God.
I want to share this prayer for the Memorial of St. Bernard, Abbot and Doctor of the Church: “Lord Jesus, perfection comes from your Father, who gave man his law so that we might find redemption. Yet even following these laws is not enough, O Lord, for humility must also take root within our hearts. Keep us both humble and charitable Lord, that we might always be more willing to abide by your commands.”
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