Who can be saved?

A reading from the holy gospel according to Mark: Peter began to say to [Jesus], “Look, we have left everything and followed you.” Jesus said, “Truly I tell you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields, for my sake and for the sake of the good news, who will not receive a hundredfold now in this age - houses, brothers and sisters, mothers and children, and fields, with persecutions—and in the age to come eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and the last will be first.” (Mk 10, 28-31) This is the word of the Lord.

This gospel reading is sort of framed between two stories. Jesus was “setting out on a journey”, he was walking, therefore. A young rich man ran up to him and asked him “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus answered that he should obey the commandments. When the young man answered that he had kept them all since his youth, Jesus looked at him and loved him, and he challenged him to give up everything he had to follow him [Jesus]. The young man “was shocked and went away grieving”. The disciples were shocked too for Jesus told them how difficult it was “for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!” They said to one another: “Then who can be saved?” 

 If people believe, as we frequently do, that being rich is a sign of God’s blessing, how can that be a stumbling block? It can be, and often is, when it prevents us from accepting Christ’s request: “Follow me!” This is the way forward. And when like the apostles we ask: “Who can be saved?” the answer will be: “Those who follow Jesus”, be they rich or be they poor. Indeed Jesus had rich and poor friends, and he did not ask all of them to separate themselves from their wealth; only those he asked to be apostles.

The story that follows today’s selection, and which is the second part of what I called its frame, tells us about Jesus announcing his death and resurrection for the third time. “They were on the road, going up to Jerusalem” Mark tells us. So Jesus is walking again, as in the first story, and this reminds us that following Jesus is a journey. Those who followed him were amazed and afraid for Jesus was walking ahead of them showing his determination to face what was to follow. He did not speak of his death and resurrection to everybody, only to the twelve apostles, who were to be his witnesses all over the world.

These two stories frame Peter’s question: “We have left everything and followed you”. This is a question, because Mark says that “Peter began to say” and Matthew completes the question “What then will we have?” (Mt 19, 27).

Jesus looked at the young man of the first story, he loved him and he asked him to be a witness, a disciple, but he was shocked and went away sad. Jesus too was sad and he acknowledged that what he asked of the young man was really hard. But the apostles did it. Some might think that it was easy for them because they had nothing to lose, they were poor: Where they? Was Matthew the tax collector poor when Jesus asked him to follow him, and Peter, and James and John and all the others? It was not easy for them for they had a job, some had a small fishing company we might call it; they were not unemployed. They left their fathers, and their boats, and the tax booth, everything they had, and they followed Jesus.

Christ’s foretelling of his suffering, death and resurrection puts all this into its correct perspective. The young man did not have enough courage to abandon all his wealth and follow the Lord. The apostles accepted Christ’s call and they left all they had. However, when we think about what Jesus left behind, what he was prepared to suffer in order to follow his Father’s plan for the salvation of humanity, and compare it to what we renounce in order to follow him and contribute to our own and other people’s salvation, we will see how our offering is small, very small.

We normally speak in awe of Christ’s passion and death, but before that, the Son of God became man, he became one of us and lived like us to make us participate in his divine life. This is how St. Paul presents it when writing to the Corinthians: “For you know the generous act of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that by his poverty you might become rich” (2 Cor 8:9). Christ’s answer to Peter’s question tells us that whatever we do, we will never outdo God’s generosity.

It is good and it helps us to remember our own small generosities so as to be encouraged to thank God and to keep renewing our offerings. No boasting, though, for as Paul wrote: “What do you have that you did not receive? And if you received it, why do you boast as if it were not a gift?” (1 Cor 4, 7). We should be thankful to God and generous towards other people according to our possibilities. Let us remember, we will never outdo God’s generosity and he will bless us and give us “a hundredfold now in this age … and in the age to come eternal life”. May God help us in our walking with Jesus and in our sharing the gifts he gave us.