28 Sunday Ordinary Time, B, 14 October 2012, Mark 10:17-30

The Rich Young Man

A few years ago, Ryan Tubridy was interviewing Amy Huberman on the Late Late. Amy was just about to get married to Brian O'Driscoll, and so the talk was all about marriage and having babies.

There was a short exchange between Ryan and another woman on the show that night, where they talked about how proud they were of their small children, especially when they finally went to the toilet in the potty! They both remembered also how delighted their young child was to display the contents of their potty to them!

To some degree, all of us look to our parents and other important people in life. We crave their love and affection, we want them to be happy with us. That is why we present our potty to them, and show them what we have achieved. There is nothing altogether wrong with this.

However, especially those of you who have children; what if your ten year old child, or your teenage child, or even your grown up child were to continue all through life literally showing you their potty? To say that it would be a sign that they had not moved on would be an understatement! Showing our parents our potty may be a stage of development, but it is definitely one that we don't want to stay at.

Today's gospel, the story of the rich young man, has been presented at different times as a story of the need for justice, a story of how to grow in the spiritual life by giving away what we have achieved; it is a story of the arrogance of youth: "I have kept all these from my earliest days."

Most of all, however, it is a story about recognition. The rich young man wants to be recognised as having done everything, achieved everything, gained everything, kept every rule, ticked every box. He wants the 'good master', Jesus, to be really impressed by him, to grant him eternal life because he deserves it. And Jesus looks at the rich young man, lovingly, in a way he looks at this man, presenting his potty, and he tells him that he must develop, he must grow, he must learn still a better way.

All of us are tempted, in our own way, to display to God how good we have been. And God looks at us, and loves us, and calls us forward to the fullness of life.