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Diocese of Phnom Penh - Article #512
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Time of witnessing Posted: 7th October 2007
Proposition to conduct a prayer meeting 1. Prayer 2. Reading of the Gospel text (5 minutes) 3.' Time of silence (3 minutes) 4. Spontaneous sharing (15 minutes) 5. Review by the animator using the written comments (10 minutes) 6. Sharing on the proposed questions (25 minutes). Take some notes 7. Our Father Time of witnessing Rich young man (Me 10,17-22) To witness and leave everything 1.Introduction to understand the text - Who is this man coming to meet Jesus? Marc just mentions that he is a man, without any specification. Mathieu says he is a young man and that would explain his enthusiasm. Luke for his part says he is an important man. - The 10 commandments. Yahweh had given these 10 commandments to Moses (Ex 20, 12) on Mount Sinai after the people of God had left Egypt and were on their way to the land of Israel. Marc mentions only the commandments that refer to others and omit the commandments that refer to God. It is his way to insist on the duties that we must carry toward our neighbors. Mathieu would add the commandment to love your neighbor as yourself. - Jesus leaves to journey toward another village. During his public life (between two and a haft to three years), Jesus proclaimed the Good News of God and so he went from place to place announcing this message. We often hear of Jesus traveling to one of the 3 provinces of Israel (Galilee, Samaria and Judea) and even a few times outside of Israel in Tyre, Sidon and Gadara. 2. Some leads to help the animator of the meeting A. *A man comes to meet Jesus. * Jesus is leaving to proclaim the good news to another village. A man comes in haste to meet him; he is full of energy, youth and enthusiasm (… running, flung himself at the feet of Jesus, good teacher...). He wants to know how to enter heaven; he is thirsty for God and has a desire to follow His words. Jesus can fill up this thirst of the man: "Come, follow me". This man has enthusiasm, he wants to know, he wants to grow and this desire is very laudable. So many people have a dull mind, not wanting anything, not asking any questions, not desiring to grow or improve. What about us? How is our desire to grow, to improve, and to become better? The man was attracted to Jesus, greeting him with the words "good teacher". Maybe he heard from others about Jesus, or he himself listened to the teaching of the Lord, or he saw a miracle that Jesus performed for a sick person. Surely that Jesus had an attractive personality and that he was drawing people to himself (crowds following him, disciples leaving everything to walk after him, this man running...). Jesus answered him right away: don't call me good. Only one is good and it is God. The focus of Jesus is on the Father, as it was throughout °his life. He says to the man: think about God because he is the one who is good. It is as if Jesus wants to pour cold water on this young enthusiasm. In fact, Jesus does not want to freeze him, but is telling him to stop and think. Think calmly what you are doing, think and count the cost. You cannot decide in a moment of strong emotional euphoria. If so, once the emotions and feelings are gone, you will loose interest and wonder why you acted that way. Emotions are good but they need to be supported by a solid decision coming from the mind. Jesus invites the young man to look at God and not be attached only to Jesus by his sentiments. We, as witnesses of Jesus, can be friends with people and love them but we are witnessing to God, not to ourselves; our Christian living is not self-promotion but to help people find God in their lives. We can be instruments of God by inviting people not to be attached at our own person but to reach God who is good and loving. B. *The answer of Jesus * Jesus answers the question of the man by quoting the 10 commandments which are the basis for a decent life and the basis to enter eternal life. This answer reminds the man of the fundamentals of a Christian life. They are all negative in their formulation except the commandment referring to the family. The man responded that he had kept all these since his childhood. For sure he was a conscientious man, following what was taught to him and keeping the law. He was in fact saying: I never in my life did anyone any harm. But the question is: what good have you done? It is not enough to accomplish the law to be a good disciple. It is like Jesus saying to him: you are young, you have riches, possessions, what positive good have you done toward others? Christianity is not only avoiding things that are bad (ex. I did not kill, I did not steal, etc.), it is doing deeds that are good, profitable for others and showing our love for them through these actions. C. *The double challenge of Jesus * Jesus loved this man. Jesus had feelings, was tender, affectionate and full of compassion. Probably he was impressed by this man enthusiasm for God, for eternal life, for searching the truth and for his efforts at following the commandments. The *first challenge* of Jesus for him is to use his possessions to help others, to be generous toward the poor and the people in need. Jesus adds: then you will have true happiness in time and in eternity. But the man had never thought of giving his riches away and for him it was a completely new way to become close to God. Jesus pulls the man out of his settled, comfortable life into the adventure of being a real Christian. And Jesus is challenging us in the same way: to move out of our usual ways into an unknown territory, relying on the word of God toguide us.It is respectable never to take away from anyone but it is Christian to give to someone. Not to take anything from them is relatively easy but to give requires a generous heart and a freedom from the riches we possess. We all want goodness, but so few of us want it enough to pay the price. Goodness is attractive, beautiful and desirable; however to practice it requires efforts and abandon, and few people are ready to pay that price. They would rather opt for facility and the easy way. The young man wanted to follow Jesus and that is why he came to meet him. But he did not want enough, and he was not willing to pay the price: to give all his possessions was something he never thought he could do. Are we also really willing to become a Christian? Are we ready to give away, to part from things that are precious to us? The *second challenge* of Jesus for the man is: when you have given everything away, come and follow me. The first challenge of Jesus was for the man to give away his riches, now he asks him to give away his family links and come following Jesus. Often Jesus asked the same thing from people: the first disciples left their nets and their fathers; when he sent the disciples in mission, he recommended to them: take no food, no bag, no money; he taught that if someone wants to come after him, he must renounce himself and carry his cross. Decidedly Jesus is asking a lot from a person to become his disciple. Jesus proposes to the rich man a new way, a new experience of liberty. Sell what you have, leave your family... happiness does not consist in leaving all one has, but in being free of it all in order to submit to Christ. Material things, family relations are good, the problem comes when we are so attached to these that we cannot accept to follow Christ anymore. A few verses later, Jesus would say to his disciples, "How hard it is for those who have riches to enter the kingdom of God!" The disciples were shocked at these words, "Who, then, can be saved?" Jesus looked steadily at them and said, "For humans it is impossible, but not for God; all things are possible with God." For Jesus the priority is the Kingdom of God. Everything else is secondary to the Kingdom, and so Jesus must have been sad to see the man refuse to follow him because of this attachment to his riches. He refuses to be what he might have been. So to follow Jesus, one must leave everything else, material possessions, family, friends, desire for power, preconceived ideas, etc. These are not bad in themselves but they can become obstacles and a hindrance to reach the Kingdom of God. Jesus invites to an experience of liberty, to an adventure, to a new solidarity in a new family. It is indeed a challenge for us but many a saint were able to accept this challenge of the Kingdom and with the grace of God were able to enter it. Two questions for the group sharing: 1. Can I identify the things to which I am attached and that hinder me from following Christ? 2. How strongly do I want to be a disciple of Jesus and what price am I willing to pay to become so? JESUS AND THE RICH MAN (Mark 10,17-22) 17 Just as Jesus was setting out on his journey again, a man ran up, knelt before him and asked, "Good Master, what must I do to have eternal life?" 18 Jesus answered, "Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone. 19 You know the commandments: Do not kill, do not commit adultery, do not steal, do not bear false witness, do not cheat, honor your father and mother." 20 The man replied, "I have obeyed all these commandments since my childhood." 21 Then Jesus looked steadily at him and loved him and he said, "For you, one thing is lacking. Go, sell what you have and give the money to the poor, and you will have riches in heaven. Then come and follow me." 22 On hearing these words, his face fell and he went away sorrowful for he was a man of great wealth. Article Source: Bishops's House |