A Word for the Twelfth Sunday After Pentecost

In today’s Gospel our Lord Jesus Christ resolves an important question put to Him by the rich young man: what shall I do to inherit eternal life? The Lord points him to the commandments given to people by God through Moses, and, moreover, to the commandments about love of neighbor, passing over the commandments concerning the Lord God Himself—no doubt because love of God is founded upon love of neighbor, and it is impossible to love God without loving one’s neighbor: for how can one who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, love God, whom he has not seen? (1Jn 4:20)—says the holy Apostle John the Theologian. So the Lord says to the rich young man: «if you want to enter into life, keep the commandments. He said to Him: which ones? Jesus said: you shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not bear false witness, honor your father and your mother, and: you shall love your neighbor as yourself. The young man said to Him: all these things I have kept from my youth. What do I still lack? Jesus said to him: if you want to be perfect, go, sell what you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me. But when the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions. Then Jesus said to His disciples: truly, I say to you, it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. And again I say to you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. When His disciples heard it, they were greatly astonished, saying: who then can be saved? But Jesus looked at them and said to them: with men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible» (Mt 19:16-26). Here today’s Gospel ends.

Yes, an important question the Lord resolves for us in today’s Gospel—the question of how, by what paths, to attain eternal life. Nothing is more certain than death; we shall all die, and our bodies will turn to dust, to the earth from which they were made in the beginning, while our immortal souls, created in the image and likeness of God, will be caught up to judgment before God: for it is appointed for man to die once, and after this the judgment (Hebr 9:27), says the Apostle—the particular judgment upon the soul of every person departing from here; on this judgment the fate of a person is determined until the final, universal Judgment over the whole world after the resurrection of all the dead. Therefore, in view of the inevitability of bodily death for each of us, it is most important and necessary for each of us to resolve, to our own satisfaction, the question: what must I do to inherit eternal life? Eternal life beyond the grave undoubtedly exists, just as eternal torment undoubtedly exists too, and this brief life here is given us by God to prepare for the life to come, which will have no end, forever and ever. This most important question of life the Lord fully resolves for the rich young man, and, with him, for all of us. If you want, He says, to enter into eternal life, keep the commandments. Which ones? — asks the young man. And the Lord answers him: do not murder, do not commit adultery, and so on, as you have already heard. Not many words, not many commandments—yet how important they are, since on the keeping of them depends the eternal life of each one of us. «For the man who does these things shall live by them» (Rom 10:5), says Scripture. It is necessary, then, to dwell on these commandments, and to enter more deeply into their meaning, so as to see the full necessity and benefit of keeping them, and the breadth of their application to life. The first word spoken is: do not murder; under it are understood many other, similar precepts, namely: do not wrong another; do not be irritable; do not be at enmity; do not be angry; do not fight; do not be full of hatred: «whoever hates his brother is a murderer» (1Jn 3:15)—says the Apostle; do not be insolent in word or hand; do not be hardhearted and stingy toward the poor; do not wear out your hired laborers with tasks beyond their strength; save the perishing, if you are able—for instance, the hungry, the drowning; do not exhaust yourself with tasks beyond your own strength, and do not ruin your own health through passions and vices; do not lead others into temptation, and do not hand over to the devil souls redeemed by the priceless blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Such is the breadth of meaning in this commandment.

Further the Lord says: do not commit adultery—not only in deed, but in thought, in impure looking, in lust: cast aside every lustful daydream and imagining, and everything that leads to adultery: gluttony, overeating, and drunkenness; immodest, tempting conversation, the reading of immodest, tempting books; immodest conduct with persons of the other sex, immodest pictures, and the like. And a single glance at a woman with lust is already adultery (Mt 5:28), by the word of the Savior. Strive for purity of thought and feeling, for purity of morals in yourself and in your neighbors, your children and your servants, your subordinates, and all with whom you have connections and close relations.

Further it is said: do not steal; here is understood not only theft, but idleness feeding off others’ labor, and bribe-taking, or extortion; and usury, or ruinous interest, which a moneylender takes from a poor man; and various kinds of unrighteous gain: knowingly receiving stolen goods; ruinous card-playing, through which a gambler steals from his own parents and relations, or from his wife and children, or simply from himself, money or the family’s substance; and, finally, one who gives no alms to the poor, though fully able to, since it is the Lord who gives abundance for the help of the poor; if one who has enough does not do this, he steals his neighbors’ property and conceals the gift of God. Further the Lord says: do not bear false witness, that is, do not slander your neighbor; for from slander, condemnation, gossip, mockery, and false witness people suffer very greatly, are deprived of their good name and of others’ sympathy, are persecuted, oppressed, deprived of their position and their means of livelihood, and sometimes, unable to bear the slander, take their own lives. It was through false witness and slander that the Lord Jesus Christ Himself was brought to the cross and to the most shameful death. A terrible evil is slander! And the holy prophet-king prays to God for deliverance from slander: «deliver me from the slander of men, and I will keep Your commandments» (Ps 118:134).

Honor your father and mother, it says further. For honoring one’s parents the Lord promises well-being and long life in this present life, and eternal blessedness in the life to come. We owe our parents our life, and for the most part our very upbringing, at least in its early stages, and it would seem there is nothing easier or more natural than to honor one’s parents. And yet in practice, especially in our own time, the opposite quite often happens: children find their parents a burden, even when they have the means to support them, deny them due honor, are rude to them, and revile them to their faces; they count their parents’ love, cares, and concern for them as nothing; they do not help them, do not support them in poverty, old age, and sickness. But woe to them if they do not come to their senses: it will go ill with them even in this present life, and eternal torment awaits them in the life to come; those who vex their parents, says the Apostle, shall not inherit the kingdom of God (1Cor 6:10).

Love your neighbor as yourself, says the commandment—that is, take care of him as you take care of yourself; wish him the same things you wish yourself; act toward him as you wish others to act toward you; pray for him just as you pray for yourself, whether he is living or departed; and do for him something good and useful just as you do for yourself; for we are all children of one Father, God, redeemed by one Blood, children of one mother, the Church, awaiting one universal Kingdom. Such are the commandments that lead into eternal life! The young man boasted that he had kept all these commandments, but it turned out, upon closer examination, that he was far from having attained perfection in keeping them: for he was attached with his whole heart to his wealth, and therefore did not sincerely love either God or his neighbor; for the Lord says, and experience confirms it too, that it is impossible to serve both God and wealth (Mt 6:24; Lk 16:13), just as it is impossible to serve two masters. He went away from the Savior sorrowful, when the Lord, for the sake of his perfection, proposed that he sell his possessions and give to the poor, for He saw that his possessions bound the steps of his soul. This is why the Lord said that it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven—harder than for a camel to go through the eye of a needle. But what is difficult and impossible for people is easy for God: for God can make even a rich man merciful, as indeed there are many among the rich who are truly merciful, and He can make a rich man virtuous and an heir of the kingdom of heaven, if he does not resist the will of God, but earnestly carries it out. There, then, is the explanation of today’s Gospel. Remember it, and, according to your strength, strive to fulfill it. Amen.