What do we allow to possess us? We give so much stuff the power to possess our lives. One example today - our cell phones. How much do we allow technology and the illusion of social connectivity to consume our lives? How many times even in Church does the choir look down and tell me how many people are on their phones during Mass. Of course we are, because they possess us. Imagine if Jesus possessed us as much as technology did.
In the Gospel, the man asks Jesus What else must I do to get to heaven? And Jesus said, Go, sell everything you have, give it all away, and follow me. And the man went away sad, for he had many possessions. Just like you and me. We too have many possessions. And we need to let them go.
And sadly, we don’t like to give them up – even for Jesus. Now Jesus doesn’t tell us to do what he told that man in the Gospel to do, but the message is still the same.
What do you and I allow to possess us? Who or what rules our lives?
It’s easy to be ruled by the things in our lives, our wants, our passions. To be consumed by our desires. Even to allow feelings of anger or hatred, jealousy or envy to become what we far too frequently think about.
We tend to give all of those things way too much space in our lives, and we tend to give Jesus way way way too little space in our lives.
We need to let Jesus possess us. We need to put ourselves in the scene of the Gospel today. He went away sad, for he had many possessions. What part of ourselves don’t we surrender to Jesus? What part of our lives do we value and treasure and cling to more than Jesus? Lots of stuff gets in the way.
How hard it is for us to enter the Kingdom of God, because we don’t surrender – we aren’t really willing to pay what it costs to get to heaven – that cost is surrendering our whole selves to Jesus, holding nothing back – for nothing on this earth is more precious than Jesus – no wealth, no possession, no grudge, no cell phone is worth more than eternal life. How hard it is to enter the Kingdom of God.
We need to check ourselves, and what we value, what we treasure, what we allow to possess us. Our prayer everyday should be should the prayer we say before we hear the Gospel – as we make the sign of the cross three times – may the Lord be on my mind, on my lips, and in my heart. That Jesus might possess us, inside and out - every word, every thought, that every action of ours might be consumed and possessed by Jesus, and nothing else. God help us all. +
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