A father left his village on business and while he was gone bandits came and burned down the village and kidnapped his son. When the father returned he found a burned corpse near his home and thought it was the remains of his son. The father almost went mad with grief and, after an elaborate cremation ceremony, placed the ashes of his son in a beautiful velvet bag, which he carried with him always.
One day the son escaped from his kidnappers and arrived at his father’s home at midnight. He knocked, and his father who was holding the bag of his son’s ashes, said, “Who is there?” The child answered, “It is me, papa. Open the door. It’s your son.”
But the father was so certain that his son was dead that he told the boy to stop tormenting him and go away. The boy knocked and knocked, but the father never answered. He held the velvet bag closer and cried without ceasing. Finally the child left and the father and son never saw one another. (Author and Source Unknown)
Like Jesus, he has been raised on Torah, which is about how to live, not what to believe. This questioner seems reflective rather than impulsive. He is in search of something more than just a “quick fix.” He is looking for clarity that stipulates a task or program. His agenda is clear, his approach direct, and his intentions are honorable.
His manner of living his faith is one of keeping the commandments and having a private piety. His question concerns practice and not belief. He wants Jesus to tell him in plain language what kind of life he should be living now in order to live in God’s presence forevermore.
Well, this seeker has possibly come to the wrong rabbi. Jesus does not always provide clarity. He rarely stipulates a task or a program and refuses to set a limit to love. Jesus never answers closed questions. Jesus looks for generous and open-ended commitment.
He has come to expand imaginations, not to play a political game or be limited to the art of the possible. His agenda is as open as God’s love, and his perspective is as wide as God’s reign. This requires any seeker to be willing to choose to live “on the edge” with an open mind and heart; to have a readiness to embrace vulnerability; to have a willingness to break through illusions and trust in imagination and vision, and move beyond the margins to encounter risk and challenge, and dare to face ambiguity, paradox and creative chaos!
Every time Jesus gives this seeker a challenge, the young man has already accomplished it. But still he wants to do more. When Jesus says the last thing he can do is to sell everything he has, give the money to the poor, and give up his life and relationships to follow Jesus, that’s even above and beyond.
And so it is written “That was the last thing the young man expected to hear. And so, crestfallen, he walked away. He was holding on tight to a lot of things, and he couldn’t bear to let go.” He takes with him his “velvet bag” of the need for answers, clarity, achievement, and a task to accomplish.
When Jesus says, “Follow me,” he is inviting us to a new discipleship. This discipleship requires new kinds of relationships and new kinds of community. Jesus expects a radical “no nonsense” response when it comes to following his new way. Rugged individualism is simply not adequate. "To follow Jesus is a dangerous thing. To follow Jesus is to follow the one who turns the world upside down, even the religious world." Jesus’ idea of discipleship is not about giving people answers but leading them into that space where they will long and yearn for God – for wisdom, for healing and for transformation.
For us today, Christian discipleship may challenge us to loosen our grasp on our “velvet bag” of treasured beliefs and opinions, hopes and promises, ideas and ideals, truths and traditions. Christian discipleship invites us to leave our old patterns of life, our cherished identities, and positions of power, success, and security and to be now in the world as “voice and heart, call and sign of the God whose design for this world is justice and love.”
Let us recall the disciple, Sr. Dorothy Stang, a Notre Dame de Namur sister, who dedicated her life for nearly 4 decades in the jungles of Brazil. She defended the rights of the poor peasants whose land was being devoured by big business, and ranchers and lumber companies.
On Feb. 12, 2005, 74 year old Dorothy was assassinated. She was shot six times as she headed to meet government officials to discuss the demarcation of land for peasants. “According to eyewitness accounts, she held up a Bible and told the gunmen that it was the only weapon she carried. She was reading the book as the bullets struck.” Truly Dorothy went above and beyond – she gave away everything for the last, the least and the lost.
And so today, let us be open to the graces of these Scriptures as we take up the challenge to follow Jesus unreservedly. Let us take time this week to reflect on the “velvet bag” that we might be carrying with treasures which may well be in the way of our responding to God’s invitation to be voice and heart, call and sign of God’s mission for justice, love, and mercy in our world today.
And finally, one last thought. Whatever happened to the rich young man?
Perhaps he did return. Could he be the one in Mark 14: 50 at the arrest of Jesus? The Scripture tells us: “And they all left him and fled. Now a young man followed him wearing nothing but a linen cloth about his body.” Has our seeker come to tell Jesus that he is now ready to follow him and that he has sold or given away everything?
The Scriptures continue: “They seized him, but he left the cloth behind and ran off naked.” If this is our young man, then he truly did let go of everything he possessed – and no doubt, Jesus looked upon him with love once again.
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