Perhaps the amount of money this seven-year-old boy saw in the collection basket of the church in my hometown was the largest amount of money he had ever seen. This boy thought that all that money was for the priest of the church. He was once asked what he would like to be when he grew up. He said that he wanted to be a priest so that he could receive so much money.
St. Mark tells us about a rich man who approached the Lord with a transcendental question. The man greeted the Lord with a title of respect: "Good teacher." The burning question in this man's heart was what he needed to do to attain eternal life. This is the most important question we all, directly or indirectly, ask ourselves. We wonder about the meaning of life and what our purpose is. We wonder how we will achieve that purpose.
As a faithful Israelite, this man knew that fidelity to God's Commandments will make him live. The Lord answered his question by telling him to keep the Commandments. The Lord mentioned the seven Commandments which concern conduct toward others but do not concern conduct toward God. The man replied that he had kept all those Commandments since his youth.
The detail that followed in the story is what gives us the key to understanding it. St. Mark writes, "Jesus, looking at him, loved him." This is the only place in the Gospels where we read that the Lord looked at someone with love. The man's reaction to the Lord’s words after looking at him with his loving gaze, helps us understand that this man seemed not to have noticed the Lord’s loving gaze. He may have missed it because he was preoccupied with his own thoughts. The Lord said to him, "You are lacking one thing. Go, sell what you have, and give to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me." If this man had noticed the gaze of divine love, then his heart would have been captivated by the Lord and he would have been moved to give up all his earthly attachments.
The Lord put his finger on the source of this man's struggle. Despite his fidelity to the Commandments, this man lacked the one thing necessary. The Lord knew that this man's earthly treasures were what prevented him from freely receiving the treasure of heaven that he lacked. The Lord challenged this man to join in solidarity with the poor by giving them all his possessions. The Lord invited this man to become as dependent on God's providence as children and join them in the Kingdom of God.
Only after the man gives up his worldly attachments can he follow the Lord as his disciple. Indirectly, the Lord told him to go and fulfill the Commandments which concern conduct toward God. Giving our life unconditionally to the Lord is how we live out the obligation to love God.
We come to Church to encounter the Lord. Like this man, we pay homage to him and kneel before him with our most fervent longing. Perhaps like this man, we too lack something that gives us transcendence and perfect happiness. The Lord knows what we long for and what we are lacking. Just as he did with this man, before giving us his definitive answer, the Lord looks with divine love on us. Like the rich man, many of us often do not notice the Lord’s loving gaze, perhaps preoccupied with our own thoughts and busyness of our own creation.
Those who perceive this loving gaze move to surrender their earthly possessions and share them with the needy. There is a spiritual reason behind placing our monetary gifts into the baskets after hearing God's Word and the explanation of it. Our hearts see God's loving gaze not through our sight but through our hearing. In the sacrifice of the Eucharist the Lord surrenders himself totally for our salvation. Our active participation in the liturgy requires that we emulate him. And our sacrifice must be in a concrete act. The Lord invites us to give our life unconditionally to him.
The Gospel reading is paired today with a reading from the Book of Wisdom. There the wise man says, "I pleaded, and the spirit of wisdom came to me…and I deemed riches nothing in comparison with her”, (Wisdom 7:7-8). Let us ask the Lord to grant us the gift of wisdom to open our ears to hear his saving Word and so be able to see his gaze of divine love.