“For God All Things Are Possible” (3 panels)
Mark 10:17-30 (and Matthew 19:16-30) “in a snailshell”
Sunday of the Twenty-Eighth Week in Ordinary Time
©️2021 by Gloria M. Chang
As he was setting out on a journey, a man ran up, knelt down before him, and asked him, “Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus answered him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone. You know the commandments: ‘You shall not kill; you shall not commit adultery; you shall not steal; you shall not bear false witness; you shall not defraud; honor your father and your mother.’” He replied and said to him, “Teacher, all of these I have observed from my youth.” Jesus, looking at him, loved him and said to him, “You are lacking in one thing. Go, sell what you have, and give to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.” At that statement his face fell, and he went away sad, for he had many possessions.
Mark 10:17-30
Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, “How hard it is for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!” The disciples were amazed at his words. So Jesus again said to them in reply, “Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for one who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.” They were exceedingly astonished and said among themselves, “Then who can be saved?” Jesus looked at them and said, “For human beings it is impossible, but not for God. All things are possible for God.” Peter began to say to him, “We have given up everything and followed you.” Jesus said, “Amen, I say to you, there is no one who has given up house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands for my sake and for the sake of the gospel who will not receive a hundred times more now in this present age: houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and eternal life in the age to come.
The Hebrew word adam (man, mankind, humankind) corresponds to the Greek word anthrópos (man, human, humankind) in Mark 10:27: “For human beings it is impossible, but not for God. All things are possible for God” (See HELPS Word Studies).
The word adam—cognate with adamah (earth, ground, land)—reminds us of our origins in Genesis:
…then the Lord God formed the man out of the dust of the ground and blew into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.
Genesis 2:7
Attachment to earthly riches and possessions is a clinging to perishable dust. By letting go, our spirits unite with the Spirit of God, the life breath of our being.
Related posts:
The Rich Young Man
A Camel Through a Needle’s Eye
Lose It All, Gain It All
Dear GMC, Thank you for your tryptic reflection. 3 times as many things to pray and meditate upon. The priest at Mass today also sent us to Paul’s 1st letter to Timothy: “Tell [the rich] to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous, ready to share, thus accumulating as treasure a good foundation for the future, so as to win the life that is true life.” Cause for hope or hopeless cause?