Freedom from Self
Mark 10:17-31
In today’s Gospel a rich man came to ask Jesus, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?”– “What must I do to have meaningful life?”, “What must I do to have a sense of wholeness in my life?” , “How do I have true happiness that lasts?” Jesus told him to keep the commandments! The man answered that he had since his youth. “Then” said Jesus “There is one thing that you lack. Sell all your possessions and give the money to the poor.” The rich man could not do it and left sorrowfully. The rich man’s problem was not so much that he had money, but his money and possessions defined who he was. Money and possessions were his main concerns in life. When those things become our main concern in life it can be a type of addiction. There is an never ending thirst that is never satisfied. One ancient writer has remarked, “Indulging in our senses and drinking salt water are alike; the more we partake, the more our desire and thirst grow”. It can be a sickness that results in dreadful conditions that in the end can destroy us.
It could be that the Rich man in our story was self indulgent but can it not be true of us as well. Is it not true that much in our culture today encourages self-indulgence.
I believe that it is a preoccupation with self that is the underlying desire for more and more. However, the life worth living is not gained from more and more emphasis on self but in giving up self to a greater cause. The sad thing is that when we concentrate more on self we lose our concern for others where the true sense of well-being is found. We think that material goods, such as big-screen TV, or winning the lottery will make us happy. Nothing could be further from the truth. There is not anything wrong with those things in themselves but they will not bring us happiness and fulfillment. Investing ourselves in relationships and showing compassion and love for others is what really makes us rich is this world.
The Dalai Lama says in one of his books:
According to my experience, the principal characteristic of genuine happiness is peace: inner peace. By this I do not mean some kind of feeling of being ‘spaced out’. Nor am I speaking of an absence of feeling. On the contrary, the peace I am describing is rooted in concern for others and involves a high degree of sensitivity and feeling, although I cannot claim personally to have succeeded very far in this. Rather, I attribute my sense of peace to the effort to develop concern for others
(Dalai Lama Ancient Wisdom, Modern World , 1999, reprinted in paperback by Abacus, UK, 2006 p.55)
— the peace of mind comes from spiritual activity:
“that is those qualities of love, compassion, patience , forgiveness, humility, tolerance and so on which presume some level of concern for others well being. We find that the (spiritual) actions we undertake which are motivated not by narrow self-interest but out of our concern for others actually benefit ourselves. And not only that but they make our lives meaningful.” (ibid p.62-63)
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In the story of the rich man coming to Jesus, we find that Jesus makes this point dramatically. I believe this is a story about freedom. Jesus recognizes that the rich young ruler who comes to Jesus was obsessed with his money and possessions to the extent that it was impossible for him to reach out to others. Jesus was offering release from the imprisonment of self preoccupation and set free to live a life of love and compassion.
The life of giving that Jesus shows to the world and asks the rich man to follow is where one can find meaning, purpose, a sense of well being and true happiness that lasts for forever.
John Killinger in “The Real Way to Personal Fulfillment” tells this story:
More than forty years ago, I heard a man describe two paintings he said he had at his home. I have never forgotten them even though I never saw them. One was of the figure in Jesus’ story of the rich man whose crops produced so abundantly that he decided to pull down his barns and build bigger ones, and he said to his soul, “Soul, eat, drink, and have a great time, for tomorrow you die.” The caption under this painting said: “The Failure That Looked Like Success.” The other painting, the companion painting, was of Jesus dying on the cross, the crown of thorns on his head, his chin drooping against his chest, the crude nails in his hands, and all his friends off somewhere in hiding. The caption under this picture said: “The Success That Looked Like Failure.”
Gathering more and more things around us can look like success but that is what keeps the addiction alive. Giving our lives for the sake of others may seem by some to be a failure but in reality it is success.
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Jesus is not just asking the rich man to give but to make giving and generosity a total way of life. Giving is not just what we do. It is the way we live.
Can we move beyond our opulence and all the dangers that go with it? Can we be truly rich and experience a real sense of self-fulfillment and success? Only if we first of all recognize our present condition of being obsessed with the never ending accumulation of goods around us. I believe that by giving ourselves over the grace of God we can be freed to live a life of love and compassion, using any wealth and possessions that we have for the good of the world. It doesn’t happen all at once but gradually learning and practicing the new lifestyle of loving compassion, giving and generosity.
I suppose one could say that it begins with repentance. Marcus Borg has an interesting take on repentance. He says that if were are to live truly meaningful lives we have to repent and we are so influenced by the culture in which we live that for Borg repentance actually means to “go beyond the mind that you have been given and acquired”, that is, to go beyond the mind shaped by the culture to the mind that you have “in Christ”
Judging from the testimony of Jesus that was in the exercise of servant-hood, that is being caring, compassionate and loving of other people, of all God’s creation.
Mother Theresa of Calcutta once said:
At the end of life we will not be judged by
how many diplomas we have received
how much money we have made
how many great things we have done.We will be judged by
“I was hungry and you gave me to eat.
I was naked and you clothed me.
I was homeless and you took me in.”Hungry not only for bread
but hungry for love
Naked not only for clothing
but naked of human respect and dignity
Homeless not only for want of a room of bricks
but homeless because of rejection._________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
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