1. 28th Sunday in Ordinary Time.
There are five Sundays left before the end of the Liturgical Year. The year ends with Christ the King which reminds us of the General Judgment all men must undergo.
Holy Mother the Church is teaching us the way of salvation throughout the entire Liturgical Year. As expected the demands on what we must do to have eternal life is at first taught in an easy way like feeding a baby with milk. And then it progresses to be more difficult like teaching a child to eat meat.
We see how the teachings of Christ progressed gradually from easy to more difficult as He taught the young man who asked Him; ‘What must I do to have eternal life.’
2. The two stages to attain eternal life.
Christ clearly gave the young man two things to do. The first was an easy thing to do. The second was impossible to do without the grace of God.
The first was natural to all men so all men can obey them using only human efforts. The second was supernatural; men cannot do them with mere human efforts. God’s grace is needed to be able to obey them.
The young man had to obey the first, easy, natural commands of God before he can obey the second, more difficult, supernatural commands of Christ. We can describe the first as Old Testament commands and the second as New Testament commands.
3. First, Christ tells him to obey the easy commands of God as found in the Old Testament. And Christ enumerates them to him to make sure he got them right. ‘You know the commands, right? But let Me refresh your memory. You shall not kill; You shall not commit adultery; do not steal……etc.
And the young man answered in a way that will stun us today. He said; ‘Teacher, I have kept all these since my childhood.’ Because the young man had obeyed God rather than men (and that has been the definition of Love of God who said; ‘If you love Me, keep My commandments) Christ could not help but look at him and love him. But that was the easy commands God give to beginners. And it is not enough to merit eternal life.
4. Second, Christ tells him to obey His more difficult commands as found in the New Testament. Christ said; ‘There is one thing more.’ Those Old Testament commands are not enough. One thing more that you must do.
Christ said ‘one thing more.’ But He enumerates two things; go home sell all your things and give it to the poor; then come and follow Me. We know these commands more as; deny yourself, take up your cross and follow Me. Christ did not enumerate the three because He just wanted to emphasize the first only.
Having heard that the young man had obeyed the commands of God in the Old Testament, like ‘Thou shall not kill; thou shall not commit adultery, etc’ …and satisfied that the young man had obeyed all the O. T. commands without neglecting any one…..Christ emphasized; ‘There is one thing more you must do. Go and sell what you have and give to the poor. After that come and follow Me.
5. Analysis.
We cannot follow the commands of Christ in the New Testament unless we have obeyed ALL of God’s commands in the Old Testament. And add to that there is need for grace to be able to obey the commands of Christ in the N.T.
Then Christ told the young man ‘the one more thing’ he must do; ‘Go and sell what you have and give to the poor.’ That really looks tough. Today, nobody will do that for any reason; even for the salvation of their souls. So the apostles said; ‘Then who can be saved?’ And Christ answers; ‘Yes, nobody can be saved unless he is helped by the grace of God. A grace that God will only give to the humble who have obeyed all the commands of God in the Old Testament. Obedience to the commands of God makes the soul humble, which is the First Beatitude of the New Testament. To this first Beatitude Christ attached the words; ‘for yours is the kingdom of heaven.’ There, the steps on how to have eternal life is clear and complete.
Note. Nobody who kills another through family planning or abortion will ever ‘go, sell all they have and give it to the poor. Nobody who abandons his wife to marry another will ever ‘go, sell all they have and give it to the poor.’
St. Augustine wrote; ‘he who cannot give up sinful things will not be able to give up lawful things. Abortion and divorce are sinful things. If you cannot give these up you will never give up lawful things like ‘what you have and give it to the poor.’ Anyone who cannot give up the sins enumerated in the 10 commandments will not be able to give up the first lawful thing required to have eternal life, i.e. ‘go, sell all that you have and give it to the poor.’
What Pope Francis and some bishops are doing in allowing divorce, family planning, liturgical abuses and other disobedience to the commands of Christ, is to make the vast number of Catholics totally incapable to obey the first command of the New Testament which is to ‘Go home, sell all your things and give it to the poor.’ Actually you should also obey the next two commands; ‘take up your cross and follow Me.’ But for most, obedience to this first is enough. This is shown at the end of the Gospel where Christ praised Peter, saying; ‘there is no one who has given up home, brothers or sister, mother or father, children or property for me and for the Gospel who will not receive in this present age a hundred times as many homes, brothers, and sister, mothers, children and property and persecution besides and in the age to come, everlasting life.’ Well, Christ had to complete what He wanted to say.
6, Unbelievable!!!
How many believe that the first requirement to have eternal life in the New Testament is to ‘go and sell what you have and give it to the poor?’ After working so hard for all the things you have. Nobody, I am sure. Well, there you are. The state of the Catholic Church. We have no Faith. We do not believe we have to do those things. Even religious who make vows do not obey this command as specifically described at the end of the Gospel. So even religious will not have eternal life? If they don’t obey the command in exactly the way it was commanded, they won’t have eternal life. The words of Christ are very clear.
The Pope and the Church are showing so much abnormal concern for the poor. The command above is the simple solution. If a portion of Catholics ‘go and sell what they have and give it to the poor,’ it will be sufficient to solve poverty around the world. But everybody is barking at the wrong tree. When the fault is in the Pope and hierarchy for not preaching the message of Christ as it should be.
Look at the double jeopardy. Pope Francis and the church preach about helping the poor and then gives the wrong way to do it. Then, they tell everybody to practice family planning and divorce their wives thus preventing them in ‘going and selling what they have.’ What a mess! By encouraging Catholics to sin through family planning and divorce, they are making Catholics incapable of ‘going and selling all that they have.’ and help the poor. And they are guilty of preventing souls from entering into the New Testament and have eternal life.
All who are disobeying and teaching others to disobey the commands of God in the Old Testament, like murder, abortion, family planning, divorce, adultery, etc are not going to have eternal life and will be dragging everybody else away from having eternal life.
We have been writing about the visible signs of the true Church; four of which are found in the Nicene Creed. 15 are found in the writings of St. Robert Bellarmine. What is the first thing we must do to begin to have the visible signs of the true Church? ‘Go and sell what you have and give it to the poor.’ Or the more complete statement of Christ, Himself; ‘give up your home, brothers, sisters, fathers, mothers, children and property for My sake and for the Gospel. You will surely have eternal life. And ‘hundreds’ of the same in this age…..and persecution even from a Pope.