"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" (Mark 10:26-27).
I paused when my college friend poured me another root beer and pressed me again, "But how does this going to Heaven part go again?" I did a quick mental search of what I remembered of the Baltimore Catechism from grade school and stumbled, "I'm not like a pro at explaining this stuff." He let it go, but his curiosity pricked me to think that tomorrow morning I should look some of this "stuff" up so I could explain it better next time. And maybe there would be many next times, and I'd be at his confirmation saying, "Yes, I evangelized well."
The takeaway from the evening probably shouldn't have been self-aggrandizing about my ability to draw people in, but rather that the whole business of salvation is indeed mysterious. We cannot save ourselves. We simply get to choose if we want to accept the freedom of salvation that Jesus came to give us. We have a part to play, but goodness gracious, it's impossible for us to zoom ourselves up to Heaven.
In today's Gospel, Jesus is explaining to His disciples that it's hard for the rich to get to Heaven, the rich! for whom all of life is easier than for the poor of His day (and perhaps true for today as well in some regards). Basically the disciples are perplexed, "If not the rich, then who?"
Jesus reminds them as He reminds us, everything is possible for God. Every heart of stone, every boulder of sin we can't move, every relative and loved one who have run away from the Faith and set fire to the bridge behind them, every deep conversation where we have no answers, God has the answer, and God is the answer.
What's impossible right now that you are insistent on doing yourself? What can you invite God into and what do you really know, deep down, He wants to come into and fix? Be open to Him today.
LOVING GOD, LOVING OTHERS
A NEW WORKSHOP
COME BACK TO FIRST LOVE
