This familiar story in the Gospel often hits a nerve. This young man was a good person. He had been living a decent life has realized that he needed something more. Something deeper. Jesus then challenges him to give up his money. At this, the young man goes away sad. We get caught up in that. Each time I start studying this passage again, it makes my wife nervous. She reminds me that we are “NOT” getting rid of her sewing machine collection. It’s because we get hung up on the “giving up” part of it. That’s not a bad thing to realize that we do have to give up anything standing in the way of discipleship, right? But we are so focused on that imperative that we miss the part where the Gospel states: “Jesus, looking at him, loved him.” That’s the key to this entire encounter.
All of this; the church, the Tradition, the Sacraments; it’s God looking at us and loving us. He isn’t asking us to give up something because He just wants us to suffer the loss of it, but because it’s taking up the place of Him in our hearts. He’s saying, “If you really want to draw near to me, there can be nothing between us.” A lot of times, we let so many things get in that place, though. Not just in our relationship with God, but with each other as well. We get anxious about that project at work. The rain isn’t coming, and the crops are starting to dry out. The bills are piling up, and our check isn’t coming for a few weeks. The kids are sick and the pharmacy doesn’t open till tomorrow. Then, on top of all that stress, we have these masks and vaccines and every little piece of baggage with that. Our heads and lives are constantly filled with instant information and news, most of it designed simply to draw us in and keep us on our toes.
Breathe. Just breathe.
Think about that for a moment. The God of the universe is keeping us alive. Sustaining us. No matter how difficult that breath can be to take. No matter how ragged or easy, whether we breathe well or have complications, it’s pure grace. An unearned gift. We are alive. Our minds want us to question it. They want us to ask, “Does God even think of me?” “Has he forgotten me?” “Where was God in all of this?” “Why me?” This same God who is now asking me to give up even more?
Breathe.
Our God said His name is I AM. He is existence itself. The very fact we still exist is a sign that God not only thinks about us, but sustains us, watches us, nurtures us, and helps us grow. He is giving us one more breath. One more chance to examine our lives and see what stands in the way of holiness. To ask what things in my life stands as a barrier to spending eternity with Jesus Christ in Heaven? A few days ago, a young man asked me the question: “What about aliens?” That’s a good question, isn’t it? What about them? In the movie “Contact,” the scientist played by Jody Foster responds to this question with: “The universe is a pretty big place. It’s bigger than anything anyone has ever dreamed of before. So if it’s just us… seems like an awful waste of space.”
But looking up to the sky, seeing the universe expanding beyond what our eyes can see or comprehend, we are faced with another question. We who believe that God created the Heavens and the Earth. We who know that God loves us beyond measure. What if all of this, all the beauty of the aurora borealis, the fading leaves of the autumn trees, the ocean in its magnificence, the planets and stars, and laws that govern the way we exist here and now… If all of it was made just for you; If this one moment, this one second of beauty was created so that your soul could hear the voice of God remind you that right now, from this tabernacle, Jesus Christ is looking at you and loving you?
Breathe.
Remember that this breath, this gasp of air, is another opportunity to do something. So what will you do with this breath? Will you praise God with it? Will I pray for those in need? Will we use it to ask Him to remove whatever stands in our way? Or will we just hold on to it for a moment with gratitude that God loves us beyond anything we can understand?
Pope Francis said:
“Praise is the ‘breath’ which gives us life because it is intimacy with God, an intimacy that grows through daily praise. … breathing is made up of two stages: inhaling, the intake of air, and exhaling, the letting out of air. The spiritual life is fed, nourished by prayer, and is expressed outwardly through mission: inhaling and exhaling. When we inhale, by prayer, we receive the fresh air of the Holy Spirit. When exhaling this air, we announced Jesus Christ risen by the same Spirit. No one can live without breathing. It is the same for the Christian: without praise and mission, there is no Christian life. And with praise, worship. We rarely speak about worship. What do we do when we pray? We ask things of God, we give thanks. … But worshipping and adoring God is part of breathing — praise and worship.” (Address to Catholic Fraternity of the Charismatic Covenant Communities and Fellowship, Oct. 31, 2014)
This week I’d like to challenge you to really think about what it means to breathe. Take a few moments each day in prayer to ask God what He wants us to do with the breath He is giving us. Seek to find anything that stands between you and turning that inhale into praise and worship of God, and find ways to get rid of that. Not everything that stands in our way is a “thing.” It might be envy. Pride. Anger. Addiction. Fear. Doubt. Disordered desires or attachments. Do we trust in God enough to let go of it? To let Him help us? Do we believe that He is enough to satisfy all our desires? Because in the end, each time we breathe, we are reminded that this could be our last one. So breathe… and let God in.
A homily for the 28th Sunday in Ordinary Time: October 10th, 2021