Forsaking all for Christ

In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. God is one. Amen

Today, in the reading from chapter 19 of the Gospel of Matthew, a rich young man asks Jesus Christ an important question, “Good teacher, what good thing shall I do that I may have eternal life?” The young man sees that what he does now on earth will determine what happens to his soul after he dies on earth. However, he is not sure what is good. Jesus Christ immediately responds to that key word “good” by saying, “Why do you call Me good? No one is good but … God”. But if you want to enter into life, keep the commandments,” concluded Jesus. Then, the young man confirms that he has kept all the commandments from his youth.

A fourth century bishop, Apollinaris of Laodicea, points out, and I quote: “The teaching of the law is good, and Christ does not criticise it, but he says, ‘If you would enter life, keep the commandments,’ indicating [to the young man] the beginning of this route but not its completion. Through this [explanation, Christ] shows that the law is not alien [or opposed] to himself, but perfection comes from himself,” concluded Apollinaris. Another fourth-century bishop and theologian, Origen, reflects, and I quote again: “These commandments are sufficient for someone entering on the ground level of the path of eternal life. But they are not sufficient to lead one to the higher level, and certainly not to perfection,” concluded Origen.

So what is the problem here? What does this young man, and what do we need to do to reach the higher level? Another fourth-century bishop, St Hilary of Poitiers states the problem quite simply, and I quote: “An arrested adolescence remains within [this] youth, whatever age he may be,” concluded St. Hilary. That is a powerful phrase—“an arrested adolescence,” meaning a slowing down of the process of growing up, remaining rather too long at the stage of development between childhood and adulthood.

Now, we all grow up in different ways, with different events and relationships in our lives. It is not a sin to grow up slowly if we grow closer and closer to Christ. However, we do need to keep going on our own personal journey—away from the search for wealth and toward the search for Christ. This is not an easy journey, either for the young man or for many of us. In chapter 19, verse 26, the disciples themselves are quite astonished by this teaching of Jesus Christ who tells them “this is impossible for mere humans, but for God all things are possible.”

St John Chrysostom offers us helpful advice on this path of growing closer to Christ. St John reflects, and I quote: “If you want to learn the way and how the impossible becomes possible, listen. [Christ] did not make this statement that what is impossible for man is possible for God merely so you could relax and do nothing and leave it all to God. No,” continued St John, “[Christ] said this so you could understand the importance of calling upon God to give your help in this [challenging] contest and that you might more readily approach his grace,” concluded St John.

It is helpful to understand that this young man is not trying to test Jesus Christ, nor do any of us seek to test Christ. In the parallel passage in the Gospel of Mark, chapter 11, the young man kneels before Jesus, confirms that he has kept the commandments and “Jesus, looking at him, loved him.” Jesus loves us, too, but as with this young man, Christ wants us to ask Him for His help to grow closer to Him.

In the midst of great personal confusion, a person who certainly did ask Christ for help was St Paul. In the epistle read today from the 15th chapter of First Corinthians, St Paul confesses that earlier he had “persecuted the church of God,” but he wrote that “by the grace of God I am what I am”—that is, a hard-working apostle. Today, we look upon St Paul as a great Christian leader and theologian who left a magnificent legacy, both in the number of people he drew to Christ, as well as in writing some 13 of the 27 books of the New Testament. However, with great humility St Paul looked upon himself as “the least of the apostles, unfit to be called an apostle. St Augustine wrote of St Paul, and I quote: “Paul did not [work] in order to receive grace, but he received grace so that he might [work],” concluded St Augustine. Whatever each of us might achieve in our lives on earth, that same pattern applies to each of us: we receive grace from God in order to work, rather than striving and working hard in order to receive grace.

The patron saint of this parish, St Aidan, whose life we celebrate today, and his fellow saint and his good friend, King Oswald of Northumbria, also knew how to ask Christ for help. The Synaxarion of the Lives of the Saints of the Orthodox Church tells us how King Oswald “had a large wooden cross made [and] fixed it in the earth” before the battle of Heavenfield, which the king’s army then won even though their opponents were far more numerous. King Oswald then served as St Aidan’s interpreter, as the two men together created on the island of Lindisfarne what has appropriately been called “a hotbed of holiness.”

The pastoral principle that Saint Aidan followed has been described in Footprints of the Northern Saints by the late Roman Catholic Cardinal Basil Hume as: “Pastors need to start where people are and not where [the pastors] think they should be. [People can] then be gently led in a direction they would never have dreamed possible.” Of St Aidan, Cardinal Hume reflected, and I quote: “All of us today are challenged by Aidan’s authenticity [that is, his genuineness, his closeness to Christ] and [his] simplicity. Such simplicity of life has two levels,” continued Cardinal Hume, “the first is single-mindedness, being so concentrated on God and serving him that other things are subordinate to that; the second level is simplicity of life-style, trying to live lives of material simplicity,” concluded Cardinal Hume [pp. 33-34].

Let us rejoice today that in this parish we are learning to ask Christ for help in following Him, just as did St Paul and Saints Oswald and Aidan.

And so, we ascribe as is justly due all might, majesty, dominion, power and praise to God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, always now and ever and unto the ages of ages.              Father Emmanuel Kahn