“Jesus said to him, ‘If you would be perfect, go sell what you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me’” (Matt. 19:21). Here we hear the radical call of Jesus to leave all and follow him. Jesus calls all to follow him, but among them he calls some to leave all to follow him in a more radical, literal, and complete way, and to them he promises the hundredfold reward. When Peter said to him, “Lo, we have left everything and followed you. What then shall we have?” (Matt. 19:27), Jesus responded, saying that those who make this more complete renunciation will receive the hundredfold reward. He said, “Everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or lands, for My name’s sake, shall receive a hundredfold, and inherit eternal life” (Matt. 19:29). Those that renounce all for Christ also renounce marriage (cf. Luke 18:29-30). They make this renunciation to be able to love God with an undivided heart in their love for him, without dividing their heart with the love of a human spouse (1 Cor. 7:32-34). Thus they are able to fulfill the first and most important commandment of Jesus, which is to love God with all your heart (Mark 12:30), in a more radical, literal, and complete way. Not everyone is called in this way, but Jesus does call some to celibacy and to live in evangelical poverty in order to keep their heart undivided in their love for God. This radical call includes everything, every aspect of our life. It is not only a call to celibacy, leaving us free in relation to the other pleasures of life. It is a call to leave all for God. This means that henceforth we are to live only for God and find our delight in him, renouncing all else for love of him. Therefore those who are called in this way renounce the delights of the world and rather live a simple life, eating and living in great simplicity. This is the consecrated life, the celibate life, the religious life, the priestly life. It is the highest state of life (1 Cor. 7:38), for it enables us to love God with all our heart, without any division of heart (1 Cor. 7:32-34), and spend all our time in his service and in the service of our neighbor for the love of God. In this way of life we renounce having our consolation in things here below in order to have it more deeply in God. We renounce the blessings of this present creation for those of the new creation; and we renounce the pleasures of the world for those of the kingdom of God, that we might experience them more profoundly. Furthermore, we know that many who are first in this world, living in its pleasures, will be last in the kingdom of God; while many who are last in this world, having renounced all for Christ, will be the first in the kingdom of God, for “many that are first will be last, and the last first” (Matt. 19:30). While all are called to enter by the narrow way of life and leave the wide way of destruction, the way of the consecrated life is the narrow way in an even more radical and literal sense. So you who are called this way, “enter by the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is easy, that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard, that leads to life, and those who find it are few” (Matt. 7:13-14).
Posted on: Fri, 15 Nov 2013 17:29:59 +0000
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