“If you wish to be perfect, go, sell what you have and give to [the] poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.”
Most of us have tripped over the word perfect upon hearing or reading the Gospel of Saint Matthew. The Lord uses the word twice in that Gospel. We had already heard in Chapter 5 and the Sermon on the Mount, "So be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect."
Scrupulous individuals who suffer the perpetual torment of a maniacal superego feel tormented by the invitation which is intended to console. Their neurosis finds fault with virtually everything about them.
Arrogant superegos suppose that perfection is attainable if only certain goals are attained. They despise the young man who, hearing that he must go, sell everything and give to the poor, went away sad.
"You're a fool!" they say. "I would have done that!" In later years they might find a faux relief in blaming everyone who did not cooperate with them. This insanity has neither empathy for human weakness nor compassion for itself.
Deliverance, reelief, and healing begin with the assurance that Jesus has atoned for every sin ever committed by any human being in the history of world. Nothing less than the sacrifice of the Lamb of God -- One who is the Coeternal Son of the Father -- can or would satisfy. And that demand is made not by a bloodthirsty, angry God but by the human race which can neither imagine nor satiate the height, width, and dimension of the abyss of guilt and sin. We want Mercy but demand Justice, and only the Son of God can accomplish both, through his death on the cross.
Nor should we suppose his physical agony fulfilled all justice. There were also the horrors of betrayal and abandonment which fell upon an innocent man who deserved neither. Looking up on the crucified Lord we must pray, "God have mercy on those who had no mercy on thee."
Artists have described a man suspended above the earth by three nails in his hands and feet. They're clearly practicing an artistic freedom since the body must have been held aloft by ropes and a short, horizontal beam between his legs. But the artists are right in describing a man who is held aloft by his love and willingness to be there.
He hears his tormentors shouting, "Come down from there if you are the Son of God." But he would not leap off the parapet of the temple at Satan's suggestion, nor will he prove his divinity by a spectacular act of defiance. He has neither the need to, nor an interest in proving anything. He is determined to pay the full price. It must be consummated!
The Lord invited the young man as he invites us to surrender our entire lives to him. The best we have is, before the majesty of God, worth less than the widow's copper coins. But as the Father receives our gifts and sees us through the eyes of Jesus, he is perfectly satisfied.
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I love to write. This blog helps me to meditate on the Word of God, and I hope to make some contribution to our contemplations of God's Mighty Works.
Ordinarily, I write these reflections two or three weeks in advance of their publication. I do not intend to comment on current events.
I understand many people prefer gender-neutral references to "God." I don't disagree with them but find that language impersonal, unappealing and tasteless. When I refer to "God" I think of the One whom Jesus called "Abba" and "Father", and I would not attempt to improve on Jesus' language.
You're welcome to add a thought or raise a question.