Faith Education and RE News

A man asks Jesus what he has to do to enter the kingdom.

Mark 10:17-30

This Sunday's readings confront us with the need to make choices in life, choices for God. They also remind us that no significant choice is without its price. However, if we make the right choice, we are assured that we will be richly rewarded.

We all want to be happy in life. We just don't always know which doors to open, and how far to enter them. We need wisdom for that. The more options that are open to us, the more difficult it is to choose, but choose we must. To choose one option is to relinquish the others. The young man in the gospel wanted eternal life. Surely there is nothing more worthy than that. However, the price he was asked to pay was more than he had expected, and he went away saddened. To choose is to face the consequences of the word of God, and sometimes this is as sharp as a two-edged sword.

One of the mysteries of faith is the incomprehensible generosity of God. We choose wisdom instead of all of the good things of the world, and we receive these good things along with wisdom itself. We are asked to relinquish all of the things that we value, and we get them back a hundredfold. We are invited to take a step into the unknown. We are told that we will not fall. However, we are never sure of this until we take the step and discover that we have not fallen. God demands so much, but gives so much more. 

By Dianne Bergant