About 30 years ago, there was a businessman who owned a car dealership that had been in his family for three generations. His father died when he was about 14 years old, so the dealership was run by an uncle until he could take the reigns of the company on his 21st birthday. Since he was so young, he took the time to get to know his employees as well as he could. There was a particular employee that he liked and took a personal interest in. He was a couple years older than the businessman, but had grown up under far different circumstances. While the dealer had the best that money could buy, the employee came from a more modest financial background. The dealer had the best education, while the employee had only made it through a year of college. Nonetheless, the dealer saw something in his employee that he liked, and he brought him into the management ranks of his business. Things were going well for both the dealer and his employee.

Unfortunately, the employee went through a heartbreaking divorce, and it was then that the dealer became even a better friend. When he came to work in the morning, he’d always stop to have a few words with the employee. He encouraged him and kept his spirits up through this painful episode in his life.

One day, the dealer invited the employee to meet with him, and when he sat down the car dealer asked a tough question. He asked the employee what he wanted to do with the rest of his life. The employee was cautious about his answer, fearing that this might be the beginning of his “exit interview” with the company. But the dealer pressed him. Finally the employee told him that the one thing he really wanted to do was to finish his college education. He told him the only reason he hadn’t done so was a lack of money. And the dealer looked at him and said, “If money’s the only thing holding you back, don’t worry about it. I’ll pay for it.” The employee was stunned because now he had to make a decision, a decision that would impact the rest of his life. The obstacle that held him back had been removed from his path. He would have to give up everything he had built and everything he had known up until then, but if he wanted to, he was now able to go back to school.

So what did he do? But more importantly, what does this story have to do with today’s gospel? There is a temptation with this gospel to focus on the sins of the rich. Sure, they should sell what they have and give it to the poor. It’s easier for a camel to make it though the eye of a needle than it is for a rich man to get into heaven. This is a gospel designed to uplift the spirits of the poor and send the wealthy away trembling, right? Well that is one way to interpret this gospel, but I think there is another way to look at it.  

To me, today’s gospel has little to do with the rich, and everything to do with the rest of us. The gospel is about making decisions, making the tough decisions that it takes to follow Jesus, regardless of ones financial position. The identity of the man in the gospel is a mystery. Mark only refers to him as “a man”. Matthew calls him “a rich young man”. In Luke, he is “a rich official”. All we know about him is that he has attained some amount of wealth, either earned or inherited. Whether he is young or old, a government official or a regular citizen, he is all of us. He is faced with the need to make a decision, for or against Christ. He is asked to step out in faith and reject his attachment to things. In his case it is wealth. The more important question is, “What is it in my case?”

Do I have an education that I flaunt in front of others and use to justify my sense of   superiority? Is it a position of influence? Do I let people know that I know the “right people”, and I can affect their lives if they don’t give me the proper respect or deference?  Do I have the cutest face or the best physique that allows me to judge the looks of others? (Oh yeah, that’s my issue!) What it is for me or what it is for you less important than the idea that our attachment to something, anything, can get in the way of our ability to offer and commit to an unconditional “Yes” to Jesus. And what he has to offer, the gift of eternal life, is so much more important and precious than anything, that we should be committing ourselves to becoming detached from whatever holds us back from it.

So, is there hope for any of us? I think there is great hope as is evidenced in one line in this reading that is often overlooked: “Jesus, looking at him, loved him.” If the young man is each of us as I suggest, then Jesus is looking at us and he loves us. And I would strongly suggest that this is exactly the case. Jesus loves each of us with a love that is beyond our wildest imaginations. And he continually provides us with opportunities of grace and comfort and happiness, as we let go of the attachments that hold us back from him.

I believe that the story in today’s gospel has a happy ending. We hear that the man went away sad, because he had many possessions. I think the man went away sad, but the Jesus that loved him, the Jesus that loves all of us, kept pursuing him until he was finally able to answer a resounding “Yes”. Jesus, this “hound of heaven”, as he has been called, loves us and won’t give up on us as long as there’s a chance that we’ll come home to him. Jesus is asking us to make a decision. It is not a decision to live in abject poverty, hunger and misery. It’s a decision to live the graced existence and abundant life that dependence on him brings.

So, what decision did the employee make when the car dealer offered to pay for his education? As you probably guessed, he made the decision to accept the car dealer’s financial assistance and go to college. And that decision changed his life. The dealer made a decision that his financial advisers were probably against. In fact when asked why he ever made the offer, he could only say, “I don’t really know why. But I knew it was the right thing to do at the time.”

I know all the intimate details of this story, because, if you haven’t already guessed, the car dealer is a friend of mine, and I am the employee he decided to help out. Decisions are funny things: they seem to cascade, one into another, into an endless stream of consequences that we would never have imagined. His generosity led to my education. That, in turn, led me to better employment opportunities, opportunities that eventually brought me to California. In California I met and married my beautiful wife Julie, and her faith inspired me to become more engaged in my faith. And that engagement led me to diaconate and to Christ the King Church.

So, now that I’ve shared with you decisions that affected my life, I’d like to ask you to take a few minutes to think about decisions that led you to the next place in you life where God wanted you to be? Then, think of a decision where attachments led you away from the abundant life that Jesus promises. Later today, share those decisions with those you love, especially those who may be struggling through difficult times. They may think that happiness is impossible. Your sharing may remind them that Jesus continues to look at us with love. He never stops pursuing us. He’ll never give up on us. Even when we think our lives are hopeless or impossible. Sharing our stories, our decisions reminds us that “For human beings it is impossible, but not for God. All things are possible for God.”