Yesterday I used an illustration from Matthew about the Rich Young Ruler. I have included some of my thoughts along with the thoughts from a recent article I read from Sermon Central. Fascinating is the life that lives everyday to get closer and closer to Jesus Christ.
August 17, 2009
Caritas in Veritate
The sure path to eternal life, to enjoying the presence of God continually even before we die, is to imitate Jesus. Jesus, the source of grace, is the great example of bringing the good that is God into contact with a world that is weak and prone to evil. The young man in the story did not want to give up his many possessions. They brought him comfort in this life, and probably cost him union with God, the only treasure worth having. When we listen to the Holy Spirit teach us about charity in truth being the authentic path to human development, we may very well hear words that direct us to experience some sort of inconvenience. When you consider the inconvenience is helping someone come to Christ, I'd say it is well worth the time.
The New Testament teaches the principal factor of development for each of is emulating the life of Christ. Christ is the perfect human, and therefore our model for one who facilitates human development. When we travel this path, we must do so with the ardor of charity and the wisdom of truth. God's love, which is experienced as grace opens our lives to gift and makes it possible to hope for a "development of the whole man and of all men."
To love in truth is a great challenge for the Church in a world that is becoming progressively and pervasively globalized. Jesus warns that the risk is that the de facto interdependence of people and nations would not be matched by ethical interaction of consciences and minds that would give rise to truly human development. Only in charity, illumined by the light of reason and faith, can we pursue development goals that possess a truly humanizing value. Authentic development proceeds by sharing goods and resources, something that love, operating as justice, and only love, can guarantee. The Church offers ethical principles and moral motivation, not technical solutions. That is how progress can be truly human.
Call me crazy, but Jesus might actually call us both as individuals and as a church to sell all our possessions and give them to the poor. May we all get closer to Christ everyday first in salvation, and the every action of our life and meditation of our heart will bring continued glory to the father as we live in closer proximity to God.
Further Reading:
Matthew 19:16-19:22
Radical, David Platt
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