Letting Go
For human beings, it is impossible, but not for God.
All things are possible for God.
When I was younger, in high school,
I remember struggling with a number of friendships
and I remember my father's advice.
He said, “Show me your friends and I will tell you who you are.
Show me your friends, and I will tell you who you will become.
Choose your friends wisely.”
It was really sound advice back then
and I think it stands true now.
Whoever we hang around with,
whoever we spend a lot of time with,
we tend to become like them and they tend to become like us.
That is for good or for bad!
If we hang around with somebody we do not particularly like,
we might want to take a look again
because you might end up being like them.
Other people might not like being around us.
It is also true, not just with whom we spend our time,
but also with what we spend our time.
That becomes the particular point of today's gospel
for this rich young man who had many possessions.
He had many things he possessed.
We consider that his wealth.
It might not necessarily have been money but things.
If we spend a lot of time with certain things,
then we tend to become consumed by those things.
That is just the way it is.
Today there are so many things that draw our attention,
distract us from even our own goodwill.
We may not even want to be a certain way,
but because we send so much time with those things.
The question is what do we treasure the most?
If somebody were to take away something, we would go,
“Oh, no, no, no, no. Not that.”
What are some of these things for the young people here?
Would doing away with your iPhone
be so detrimental to your life
that you would not have social media?
That is where a ton of us spend a lot of time.
And by the way, it is not just the young people.
Older people are spending tons and tons of time.
Some of the statistics are off the scale.
The average young person is spending
three to four hours a day a day on social media
and up to seven to eight hours on their phone each day!
Wow. That is just crazy!
The statistics for adults is not much different unfortunately.
How much time we are spending watching television ?
Is that really who we want to become?
Look at those people in those television shows.
Is that who we want to become?
Because that is who we will become
if we spend that amount of time watching it, listening to it.
And there are many other things.
I said this last night and I got a tough look,
how about games, sports?
I love the Warriors;
I love the 49 ERs;
I love the Sharks.
But that is a lot of time every week.
Each of those games is hours.
If I watch every one of those games,
it is hours and hours of time
and yet look how empty our church is.
It is because people are making the choice to do something else
that they do not have the time to come to church.
They do not value it.
Let me give you an example.
There is a person who lived in the neighborhood.
I used to walk by their house most days.
They have since moved, so I can talk about now.
Every Sunday morning when I would go for a walk early in the morning,
I am talking early before 7AM right?
I would either walk before 7:30 Mass
or during the first part of 7:30 Mass
because I came back and do the four minutes.
So we are talking about 7:30 am.
He would be out washing his three Teslas
and he kept them spick and span.
They were beautiful.
I would pass by and he would say, “Good morning Father.”
Yet, never once did he come to church on a Sunday morning
except for Christmas and Easter.
Now it seems to me and again I want to be careful.
You do not know what is going on in the life of a person
whose priority was those Teslas.
If I told him I was gonna take away those Teslas,
he would have a huge problem.
His three most precious items
that he spent at least an hour and a half
every Sunday cleaning to the highest level.
My friends, in today's gospel, the man goes away sad
because he knew there was something that he could not let go.
Is there something we cannot let go off?
See, it is about freedom.
It is about what is holding us back.
What is holding us back from a deeper relationship with Christ?
Because here is what the young man misunderstood:
that he could “do something” to gain eternal life.
That is the question, what must I do to gain eternal life?
What he did not understand is
that he did not have to do anything to gain eternal life.
That was a free gift given to him by Christ.
And it is given to every one of us.
You might say to him, what is the purpose in doing anything then
because we already have eternal life?
Well, it is to celebrate the gift given to us freely.
When we realize we have the gift of eternal life,
then we come to this table every Sunday
to celebrate with others and to become what we have been given,
to become the body of Christ,
to become the joy of others
so that everyone else can be set free
and not be held down by this stuff.
Now you might say,
“Well, I have only got this little thing or that little thing.
It is not really that big of a deal.”
Let me give you a quote from St. John of the cross.
He says, “Whether a bird is tied by a string,
a rope, or a thread, the bird will never fly.”
It does not matter how small those things are that get in our way.
They are in our way.
We need to let go of them so that
we can receive more of God.
So the question we all have to ask ourselves now is,
“With whom do we spend our time
or with what do we spend our time?”
We need to ask how we can give it up
so we can spend more time with God
and with each other so that we can realize the joy of the gospel.
It is not what or who.
It is how much we need to let it all go.
To remain free to become the best version of ourselves.
For human beings, it is impossible, but not for God.
All things are possible for God.