But I think that dismisses him too easily.<\/strong> If the gospels teach us nothing else, it is this: an encounter with Christ changes people. The blind see, the paralyzed walk. It\u2019s entirely possible that this rich young man\u2014in a sense, living with a different kind of blindness and paralysis\u2014was also changed.<\/p>\nI think Mark leaves this story open-ended as a way of telling us that our lives, too, are open-ended. We have choices.\u00a0 What will we choose?<\/p>\n
For the rich, Jesus said, the choice is especially hard.<\/p>\n
But all things are possible with God. Consider, for example, the story of Brother Matthew Desme.<\/p>\n
If you find yourself in southern California, you might drive about 20 miles south of Los Angeles, to St. Michael\u2019s Abbey, in Silverado, California. It is run by the Norbertine order. There you will find a number of young men in white robes doing the ordinary work that the Norbertines do. They get up at five every morning to pray. They chant the Mass.\u00a0 They dig trenches, mop, mow lawns. They observe \u201cthe Great Silence,\u201dnot speaking for hours at a time.\u00a0 And at the end of the day, they retire to small rooms with a single bed, nightstand and sink. They own nothing.<\/p>\n
One of them is 26-year-old Brother Matthew \u2013 tall and slender, with close-cropped hair and glasses. He\u2019s been a novice at the abbey for two years.\u00a0 He doesn\u2019t look any different from the other men in white robes who walk the grounds and work the land. He\u2019s the sort of person you might not even notice. And that\u2019s the way he likes it.<\/p>\n
He likes it because just three years ago, everyone noticed him.<\/p>\n
Three years ago, he wasn\u2019t Brother Matthew.<\/p>\n
Three years ago, his name then was Grant Desme.<\/strong> He wasn\u2019t a monk. In 2009, Grant Desme was one of the hottest rising stars in American baseball \u2014 a center-fielder playing for a farm team for the Oakland A\u2019s. \u00a0During the minor league season in 2009, he hit 31 home runs. In November of 2009, he was voted the league\u2019s Most Valuable Player. \u00a0When the opportunity came, he was drafted by the Oakland A\u2019s in the second round and signed for a salary of $430,000 a year.\u00a0 He was looking at a future a lot of young men dream about, where people would see him on cereal boxes and line up to have him sign bats and caps.<\/p>\nBut just two months after signing that contract, Grant Desme announced he was quitting.\u00a0 People were stunned.\u00a0 Since the age of four, all he\u2019d ever wanted was to play baseball.\u00a0 But he realized that he wanted something else more.<\/p>\n
He wanted to be a priest.<\/p>\n
In the fall of 2010, he entered St. Michael\u2019s Abbey in Silverado. The man who seemed destined to be a household name changed <\/em>his name.\u00a0 Or rather, he had his name changed for him.<\/p>\nHe was given the name of Matthew.\u00a0<\/strong> He asked his superior why. \u201cHe said it was because Matthew was a rich tax collector,\u201d Brother Matthew explained recently. \u201cAnd I was a rich baseball player.\u201d<\/p>\n\u201cI had everything I wanted,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd it wasn\u2019t enough.\u201d<\/p>\n
One of his teammates put it this way: \u201cHis love for God took over his love for baseball.\u201d<\/p>\n
People who know more about this than I do will tell you that what Grant Desme did is unheard of. Players with his kind of talent just don\u2019t do what he did. They just don\u2019t. It\u2019s unthinkable \u2013 or impossible.<\/p>\n
But what did Jesus say in the gospel?<\/p>\n
\u201cFor human beings it is impossible, but not for God. All things are possible for God.\u201d<\/p>\n
The blind see.\u00a0 The paralyzed walk.\u00a0 Grant Desme becomes Brother Matthew.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s one reason I think the rich young man in the gospel didn\u2019t do what you might expect. Maybe it didn\u2019t happen overnight. Maybe it took a lifetime. But I think he must have understood, as Grant Desme did, that he had all he wanted\u2026but it wasn\u2019t enough. An encounter with Christ changes everything.<\/p>\n
While the gospel is about having, and owning, and possessing \u2013 about the things <\/em>that clutter up our lives and get in the way of our salvation \u2014 I think there is another message here, too.<\/p>\nNot all of us are burdened with wealth \u2014and isn\u2019t that a burden we\u2019d all like to have? \u2014but there can be other things that get in the way of following Christ.\u00a0 Other things we possess. \u00a0Maybe it\u2019s a fear of change, an inability to trust or to love. \u00a0Maybe it\u2019s a stubborn attachment to a particular sin. Maybe it\u2019s something rooted in fear, or insecurity, or our own resistance to change.<\/p>\n
How hard it is for us sometimes to give up those things, to let them go.<\/p>\n
So often, the things we possess aren\u2019t things at all.<\/p>\n
And often, we don\u2019t possess them.\u00a0 They possess us.<\/strong><\/p>\nThis gospel asks us to let go of what we don\u2019t need, those \u201cpossessions\u201d that keep us from following Christ completely.<\/p>\n
Can we do it?<\/p>\n
Will <\/em>we do it?<\/p>\nAre we courageous enough to try?<\/p>\n
Grant Desme did.<\/p>\n
And today, as Brother Matthew, he will tell you: \u201cAll things are possible for God.\u201d<\/p>\n
Our restless hearts will find rest if we put our trust where it belongs\u2014not in things, but in the Creator<\/em> of all things.<\/p>\nThe Holy Father has just begun a Year of Faith.\u00a0 This gospel\u00a0 can serve as a timely reminder that faith is rooted not in what we see, or own, or have, but in something deeper. It takes trust.\u00a0 It demands a kind of courage.\u00a0 The rich young man was asked to take a leap of faith. So was Grant Desme. So are all of us.<\/p>\n
But the rewards are incalculable. A life of faith, a life of surrender and sacrifice, can lead us to the place all of us seek\u2014the place that every baseball player knows is the ultimate goal.<\/p>\n
It can truly bring us home.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"[Click here for readings.] This episode in the gospels could go down as one of the great \u201cunsolved mysteries\u201d of the New Testament. We never hear what happened to the rich young man, never find out what he did, never hear the rest of the story.\u00a0 We tend to assume that he was simply too […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":132,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-79008","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-homilies"],"yoast_head":"\n
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![\"\"](\"https:\/\/aleteiaen.files.wordpress.com\/2015\/11\/desme.jpg\" "\\"desme\\"")
<\/a>[Click here for readings.]<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n