If you want to be perfect, go, sell what you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me

 Then little children were brought to Him that He might put His hands on then and pray, but the disciples rebuked them.  But Jesus said, "Let the little children come to Me, and do not forbid them; for of such is the kingdom of heaven."  And He laid His hands on them and departed from there.

Now behold, one came and said to Him, "Good Teacher, what good thing shall I do that I may have eternal life?"  So He said to him, "Why do you call Me good?  No one is good but One, that is, God.  But if you want to enter into life, keep the commandments."  He said to Him, "Which ones?"  Jesus said, " 'You shall not murder,' 'You shall not commit adultery,' 'You shall not steal,' 'You shall not bear false witness,' 'Honor your father and your mother,' and, 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' "  The young man said to Him, "All these things I have kept from my youth.  What do I still lack?"  Jesus said to him, "If you want to be perfect, go, sell what you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me."  But when the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions. 

- Matthew 19:13-22

On Saturday we read that, after Jesus finished telling the disciples about conduct within His future Church and the values of the kingdom of heaven (see readings from Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday), He departed from Galilee and came to the region of Judea beyond the Jordan.  And great multitudes followed Him, and He healed them there.  The Pharisees also came to Him, testing Him, and saying to Him, "Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for just any reason?"  And he answered and said to them, "Have you not read that He who made them at the beginning 'made them male and female,' and said, 'For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh'?  So then, they are no longer two but one flesh.  Therefore what God has joined together, let not man separate."  They said to Him, "Why then did Moses command to give a certificate of divorce, and to put her away?"  He said to them, "Moses, because of the hardness of your hearts, permitted you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so.  And I say to you, whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another, commits adultery; and whoever marries her who is divorced commits adultery."  His disciples said to Him, "If such is the case of the man with his wife, it is better not to marry."   But He said to them, "All cannot accept this saying, but only those to whom it has been given:  For there are eunuchs who were born thus from their mother's womb, and there are eunuchs who were made eunuchs by men, and there are eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven's sake.  He who is able to accept it, let him accept it."

 Then little children were brought to Him that He might put His hands on then and pray, but the disciples rebuked them.  But Jesus said, "Let the little children come to Me, and do not forbid them; for of such is the kingdom of heaven."  And He laid His hands on them and departed from there.  My study bible says that, according to Theophan, the disciples rebuked the mothers for bringing little children to Christ both because their manner was "unruly" and because they thought children "diminished His dignity as Teacher and Master."  But Christ rejects this thinking, and He once again (as in Wednesday's reading) sets little children as an example of those who inherit the kingdom of heaven.  Children are therefore invited in the Eastern and other churches (even as an example to adults) to participate in the Kingdom through prayer, worship, baptism, chrismation, and Communion.  As in the earlier reading on Wednesday, Jesus will repeatedly urge the disciples to humility, and little children serve as an example of such.

Now behold, one came and said to Him, "Good Teacher, what good thing shall I do that I may have eternal life?"  So He said to him, "Why do you call Me good?  No one is good but One, that is, God.  But if you want to enter into life, keep the commandments."  My study bible says that this man (unlike the Pharisees in Saturday's reading, above) does not come to test Jesus.  He is rather seeking advice from one whom he considers to be no more than a good Teacher.  Jesus' response does not deny that He is God, but is rather designed to lead the rich man to this knowledge. 

He said to Him, "Which ones?"  Jesus said, " 'You shall not murder,' 'You shall not commit adultery,' 'You shall not steal,' 'You shall not bear false witness,' 'Honor your father and your mother,' and, 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' "  The young man said to Him, "All these things I have kept from my youth.  What do I still lack?"  To observe the commandments formally doesn't make one righteous before God, according to my study bible.  This man has an earnest desire for eternal life and he senses that he still lacks something.  So, he continues to press Jesus for the answer. 
Jesus said to him, "If you want to be perfect, go, sell what you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me."  But when the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions.   To be perfect, my study bible says, one must willingly sacrifice all and follow Christ.  As Creator, Christ puts us where we need to be and knows us more deeply than we know ourselves; this is a mystical reality for us as human beings.  Nothing is gained, my study bible adds, unless this sacrifice is given freely.  The specifics of how one follows Christ will be different for each person.  In this case, wealth had such a grip on this rich young man, that his only hope was to sell and give away all his possessions.  St. John Chrysostom, my study bible notes, says that giving away possessions is the least of Jesus' instructions here.  To follow Him in all things is a far greater and more difficult calling.

The rigors of discipleship may take us to all kinds of places which are unexpected when we begin the journey.  But one thing is clear, and has been clear from Christ's teachings to His own disciples before this point in the Gospel:  to follow Christ we will be asked to make sacrifices.  But those sacrifices, while seemingly nearly impossible, are not sacrifices of things we truly need in terms of what is best for us or wholly good.  In our earlier readings, Jesus has spoken to the disciples about cutting off a hand or foot or eye rather than harming one of the littlest ones who will be in their charge in the Church (Wednesday's reading).  Jesus makes a similar statement to all of us in the Sermon on the Mount (5:29-30), in the context of committing adultery.  These figurative images are meant to convey to us the importance of making sacrifices -- even of things seemingly indispensable to our character or that are deep desires -- if they are not really good for us, not really profitable in the light of the kingdom of God.  In other words, there is a distinction here between things which are truly loved and things which serve as attachments or distractions from our real purpose and true fulfillment of character and persona.  In this rich young man's case, it is not the riches that are evil.  If we take a cue from St. Paul, it is, in his words, the love of money (my italics) that is the root of all kinds of evil (1 Timothy 6:10), connected with greed and sorrows and as a snare that works to push people to stray from the faith.  What is important here is the attachment that keeps us from being fully manifest in that Kingdom as the persons we are called to be in His light and guidance.  If faith is a journey, then the things that we need to discard along the way are not things that lead us to love, but rather the things that lead us away from it and into the sorrows which St. Paul mentions.  Jesus clearly loves this young man (Mark's Gospel explicitly tells us so, see Mark 10:21).  He does not ask him to sacrifice his patrimony, inheritance, and possessions simply for the sake of sacrifice or to command a loyalty that is demeaning or humiliating.  Rather, Jesus expresses to this young man what is best for him out of the fullness of love.  This is something that is necessary for the rich man's well-being, so that he may in fact find himself.  What he will lose is that which leads him to a false sense of self and creates a false confidence in what leads him away from true substance and salvation.  What we can each take away from this encounter is something repeated many times in the Gospels:  that what seems like an intense and deep sacrifice is often that which we need to make so that we may, in fact, find ourselves -- find what is truly better, richer, stronger, and deeper.  It is so that we may find the depth of who we truly are and can become in Christ's light, and bearing likeness to Him.  We lose our lives so that we may find them, and this is the fullness of the meaning of the Cross and its way for us in each of our lives.  We may have, for example, a proclivity toward anger, or a desire for power over others, a habit of manipulation, or possibly we have relationships we would be truly better off without.  As my study bible says, for each person these instructions will be unique and different, depending upon what we truly need.  But the promise of a fuller, deeper, and richer personal life remains for each.  The disciples leave their lives as fishermen behind, and take on the role of pillars of His Church, adding along the way confidence, strength, leadership, wisdom, heroism.  What will you find when you lose what you think you need, in His name?  Such is the true mystery of faith.