The Rich Prince's Sorrow

Then Jesus fastened his eyes on him, and conceived a love for him; In one thing, he said, thou art still wanting. Go home and sell all that belongs to thee; give it to the poor, and so the treasure thou hast shall be in heaven; then come back and follow me. At this, his face fell, and he went away sorrowing, for he had great possessions. - Mark 10: 21-22

Invited to join Christ, the rich young prince clings to his material wealth instead, rejecting a mountain of gold for his mountain range of fool’s gold. He rejects salvation out of fear of what others will think of him when he has no more money and possessions to use to impress them.

By clinging to that material wealth, he places a barrier between himself and authentic, genuine love. He will never know true love in his life so long as he clings to that wealth because he will never know if others would still care for him if he didn’t have it. 

He remains insecure and uncertain of his own worth. Too addicted to using money and possessions to win over the people around him, he misses out on the opportunity to learn from Christ what real love is and to experience it firsthand.

He prefers the comforts his money can buy and the control it gives him over the direction his life takes to the risks involved in fully relying on God for providence. He checks all the boxes of religious practice but fails to get to the heart of it because he doesn’t trust in God. He trusts in his money and his goods. 

The challenge for me in these readings is to avoid imagining that I am any better. What am I clinging to in my life that is stopping me from giving my life entirely to Christ? What do I think that I have to have in order to be loved that is not what Christ wants for me? That’s the question that I must answer.

If I don’t have material wealth in dollars and cents but there’s something or someone in my life that I am clinging to instead of Christ, am I willing to let go of it or of that person so that I can follow Him? Am I willing to allow myself to be fully loved by Christ without all that excess baggage?

Is there something or someone in my life that I am placing my trust in rather than Christ? Am I allowing that thing or that person to be a barrier to a deeper, fuller, and more authentic relationship with God?

Do I recognize that whatever or whomever it is I place above God and trust more than Him has become a false idol for me? It’s an easier sin to commit than most people realize.

I’ve been that rich young man. I didn’t have two nickels to rub together, but I owned a car. It wasn’t street legal to drive, and I couldn’t afford to get it there, but I told myself it was okay because I needed it.

I told myself I did good things with it so it was okay. Never mind the risk to others. Never mind the risk to myself.

People often look down on those with no vehicle. They look down on pedestrians and treat them as second-class citizens. They may be okay with giving you a ride once or twice, but a long-term situation - even if the drive is only 5 minutes long - becomes a burden.

I didn’t want to let go of the car. It gave me a measure of status, and I had precious little else that did. The day I finally gave it up and surrendered it was hard. I cried. It felt like a part of me was dying - and it was. My ego was dying. My sense of security and agency apart from Christ was dying. 

Giving up the car did cause many hardships in my life. I could no longer make money giving rides to our roommate, and he was forced to find alternative transportation in order to keep his job. It did mean I had to rely on my other roommate for rides to Mass, which sometimes inconvenienced her and forced me to get there earlier than I wanted to be there or to stay longer than I’d wanted to.

I could no longer pick up my granddaughter, so I was forced to rely on my son and the girl’s mother to bring her to us. That meant we didn’t get to see her as often as we’d like. That hurt my heart.

But good things came of it, too. My husband and I both got out and walked more. We were forced to pick our battles in terms of what we wanted to do or where we wanted to go. It wasn’t easy - but it was better for us in the long run. 

My encouragement to you: God never asks us to give things up simply to be cruel or unkind. He only ever asks us to give something or someone up in order to:

Adjust our priorities
Align our hearts with His
Give us something greater

But first, we must demonstrate our trust in Him. We must show that there is nothing and no one in our lives that we prioritize over Him. 

That’s why Abraham’s willingness to sacrifice Isaac in Genesis mattered to God. It was a demonstration that Abraham valued nothing more than the love of God. May we find the courage and the fortitude to be like Abraham, being willing to put to death whatever earthly thing or person we love most in order to serve His will.