3rd
Feb. Trinity
(Sunday
before Ash Wednesday, 7th Sunday before Easter)
Luke
18: 18-34
One
of the highest spiritual leaders of the people asked him, “Good Master, what
must I do to obtain eternal life?”
Jesus answered him, “Why do you call me good? No one is
good but One—God alone. You know the commandments, you shall not destroy
marriage, you shall not kill, you shall not steal, you shall not speak untruth,
and you shall honor your father and your mother!
He
said, “All these I have observed strictly from my youth.”
When
Jesus heard this, he said, [Jesus, looking at him, loved him and said… Mk 10:21]
“One thing however you lack: Sell all of your possessions, and give the money
to the poor; thus will you achieve a treasure in the spiritual world—then come
and follow me!
He
was sad about these words, for he was very rich. And when Jesus saw him
thus, he said, “What hindrances must those overcome who are rich in outer or
inner possessions, if they want to enter into the kingdom of God kingdom
of God
Those
who heard this said, “Who then can be saved?”
He
said, “For man alone it is impossible; it will be possible however through the
power of God working in man.”
Then Peter said to him, “Behold, we have given up
everything to follow you.”
He
replied, “Amen, the truth I say to you. No one who leaves home or wife, or
brother or parents or children for the sake of the kingdom of God
Then he took the twelve to himself and said, “Now
we are going up to Jerusalem, and everything which the prophets have written
about the Son of Man will fulfill itself: He will be given over to the peoples
of the world; they will mock and taunt him, they will spit upon him and scourge
him and kill him; but on the third day he will rise up from the dead.”
Yet his disciples understood
nothing of all this. The meaning of his words remained hidden from them, and
they did not recognize what he was trying to tell them.
3rd
February Trinity
Luke
18:18-34
The
blossom is the glory of the plant. Rich color, fragrance and beauty opens themselves
to the sun. But what happens next? The petals wither and drop away. Tiny hard
green fruits appear, containing even tinier seeds. Yet within that seed is
condensed the entire power of the life of the whole plant.
This
is also a basic pattern, a basic rhythm of development in our own human lives:
a rich period of glorious development, followed by an apparent loss. Yet for us
too, such a loss of glory is a necessary prelude. For Life is consolidating and
condensing itself, gathering force and strength. Life is preparing a new phase,
a next form; for the law of living things is a continuous changing out of
forms. Old forms break apart, so that new ones can arise. The death of one form
is only a temporary state, for Life itself predominates.
In
this reading Christ recognizes that the rich young man is ready to lose the
richness of his blossoming in order to take the next step on the transforming
path of Life. And Christ encourages him by saying, ‘After you have voluntarily given
away the old form, come and follow Me!’
For
Christ Himself walks before us on this path of the transformation, this
transubstantiation of forms. This is the path of letting go the old and taking
up the new, of dying and becoming. Christ knows that this is the law of living
things because He Himself is Life itself—the power of Life in all creatures. He
too has voluntarily immersed Himself in the changing of forms, which is so
often accompanied by birthing pangs. He willingly subjects Himself to the human
condition, to the suffering that accompanies the breaking of the form, even
unto the death of the bodily form, so that a new form can arise. For with Him a
new form will indeed arise. On Holy Thursday he will pour His soul into a new
form of His body—bread and wine. On Easter Sunday He will form a living
resurrection body. And at Ascension the whole earth will become His body.
We
can willingly and trustingly follow Him on this path of the shattering of old
vessels and the creating of the new. Because He is the Way, the Truth, the
Life. John
14:6
And
now, as the poet says,
Why cling to one life
Till it is soiled and ragged?
The sun dies and dies
Squandering a hundred lives
Every instant.
God has decreed life for you
And He will give
another and another and another.[1]
