Monday - 20^th Week in Ordinary Time

Gospel – Matthew 19:16-22

Let It Go!!

Moving Day!

This time last summer was spent working on downsizing and tossing out a lot of the ‘stuff’ we accumulated over these many years in our Chicago home (Ginger – virtually- and myself – in person).  It was a very slow and difficult process. We started out examining every room and closet in our house, top to bottom, especially the basement (which seemed to be the holding area for decades of our possessions), and then deciding what to keep, what to donate, and what to trash.  It was a physically and emotionally exhausting task that still continues today in our Tennessee home as we sort through the final few unopened boxes of stuff from our big move from Chicago to Heiskell – yes, it is taking us quite a while as we try to move to a simpler and more practical, and ultimately more satisfying, life together!

In the process, we have learned we aren’t just sorting through papers and unused items; we are also revisiting past events and relationships!  I think, along the way, we are learning the difference between letting go of things but still holding on to the memories!

The rich young man in today’s Gospel is also struggling. He knows what he has to do to become a follower of Jesus. For him, it’s his attachment to all his physical possessions, all his stuff!  All he has to do is let go of them and he can’t do it.     

What about us?  What ‘stuff’ are we holding on too tightly or too long?  Let It Go!  Clean Your House!  Downsize Those Negative Feelings!  Look at it not as giving up but as freeing yourself to follow Christ!  If there is anything the rich young man gets right, it’s the question he asks – What must I do to gain eternal life!  That’s the question we should be asking ourselves today.  Are all these hurt feelings and resentment, all our ‘stuff’,  helping me to gain eternal life?  If not, let them go!

The world is not going badly because of the wicked actions of the bad, but because of the apathy of the good.