RECEIVE THE DIVINE LITURGY OF THE BODY OF GOD

We all have deeply inscribed a desire of longevity. We seek to prolong every good thing we taste. When I was 5 years old, I remember my amazement at seeing the wardrobe of my mother: so many dresses, so many high heels, such a packed jewelry kit... I was surprised to see my mother so desirous to add one more dress, one more pair of shoes... when she traveled, she had a hat box, a luggage just for hats! This

craving quickly started to be transformed because of her very bad health. The longevity of appearing in the world as a striking beauty is not unique to my mother!

We all have particular goods we desire to prolong.

Let us prolong Mount Tabor,

let us give new longevity to our beautiful buildings...

I get very attached to prolonging some particular goods dealing with my person.

Ancestors prepared all the necessary for the embalmment of their body, food to be put in their coffin, and a great pyramid to be their tomb! In contrast with all these

particular goods, how beautiful it is to hear the young man say today: “Teacher, what good deed must I do, to have eternal life?” Is he not requesting something like Moses: “Show me your glory!” Ex 33.18 or like the psalmist: “Your face, Lord, do I seek.” Ps 27.8? But, our young man is using the terminology of Jesus in the Gospel of John. Jesus mentions there some 15 times eternal life, for example: “everyone who sees the Son and believes in Him has eternal life”.

Even though this young man is admirably focused on the desire of that precise longevity that Jesus reveals to be the Will of the Heavenly Father for us... Jesus corrects the young man. God corrected also Moses saying to him: “You cannot see my Face, but...” So, what is wrong with “Teacher, what good deed must I do, to have eternal life”? Jesus answers: “seeking the way to be admitted into eternal life, do

not address the Rabbi, the Teacher, who I am. You are seeking a good which transcends the possibilities of human faculties. Keep the commandments. Practicing the commandments will lead you believing in Truth with a capital T, and that purified belief leads you to eternal life.” At the request of the young man, Jesus gives an

abbreviated list of commandments: “You shall not kill, You shall not commit adultery, You shall not steal, You shall not bear false witness, Honor your father and mother, and, You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

To our surprise the young man naively says: “I have observed them”! Some persons may say with assurance “I have not killed” and assert: “I have not committed adultery”. It is true, thanks be to God, some are faithful to the exterior observance of these 2 commandments... but to observe, even if it be only exteriorly, the next four

commandments become a greater and greater feat. Who can say with a clear conscience “I have never stolen a pencil”, and then add “On no occasion, I have borne false witness to fulfill my little purposes”, and then add “I have never not honored my father, not honored my mother”, and last of all who will dare add: “I have been

loving everyone of my neighbors as myself”? We judge the young man as naïve. But is not the example of the young man a gift to remind us how naïve we are in practicing the commandments?

Our Monastic Fathers teach us that if we are not continually shedding tears, we are very naïve, we are not in a genuine dialogue with God! We may not be so different from this young man! Is it not marvelous that, to him who is naïve, Jesus openly

accepts a next request: “What else is there?” In this young man, there is an splendid intuition that the practice of the commandments, which is already an incredible challenge, is not the last word of Divine Revelation.

There is something more Jesus wants to convey. What is it? What is it that ultimately opens eternal life? To enter eternal life it is necessary that we fully receive the saying: “With men it is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” To enter eternal life requires jumping into trust in God’s divinity which transcends completely our world, a pure gift that Jesus alone can bring to us in this world, a pure gift prolonged miraculously through the intermediary of our Fathers who lead us to the gift of faith.

How can Jesus say to me: “be perfect as My Father is perfect’? How can Jesus say to me: “Sell what you possess and give to the poor, and you will have your treasure in heaven”? The young man goes away sad. If we are realist, should we not also go away sad? Here, we must cling to what Holy Scripture teaches us. When Jesus says to me “be perfect, sell all you have and give to the poor”, He does not finish there, He adds: “come, follow me, come, follow me you who remain so naïve, miserable, come, follow me you who repeat with the psalmist: no soundness in my flesh, no peace in my bones... my iniquities pass over my head... I am crushed to the extreme, my strength fails, I am in the sadness of the young man. Yes, to you miserable, I, Jesus, am saying: come, follow me, where things are impossible for you, all things are possible for God.”

This is the message of the Divine Liturgy we are now celebrating: “where things are impossible for you, all things are possible for God, and so come follow me. Do

not follow me as rabbi, follow me as the one who gives you the good which is God alone. Receive in this Divine Liturgy the Body of God”!