Ukrainian Orthodoxy		Orthodoxie ukrainienne

The Good One!

Very Reverend Ihor Kutash kutash@unicorne.org

(Twelfth Sunday after Pentecost)

Today we shall reflect on Jesus' words in the Sunday Gospel (Matthew 19:23-26): "There is only One Who is Good. Keep the commandments if you want to enter life". 

As always, we find Jesus directing all honour to His Heavenly Father, Whom He has revealed to be also our Father. He came to earth to reveal His Father and His Father's will by teaching about it and doing it. Obviously, we who have decided to follow Jesus by keeping our baptismal vows and commitments, also know that Jesus Himself is supremely Good. Once again, His humility (so profound that He accepted death upon the Cross and even descended to Hades to reach the souls who had been awaiting His coming) is shown by His pointing out this quality in His Father rather than in Himself.

But was it good to direct the young man who was seeking perfection to sell everything he possessed? Does God want us to be paupers? Why, is it not true that money and possessions give people the power to do a lot of good in this world? How can we become true philanthropists without the means of bringing about some of the dreams and plans we have for the glory of God and the good of humanity?

The answer: the best gift we can ever have and the best one we can ever give is life with God. The problem with possessions is not that they are not good to have - they are. But they can become more important to a person than the One Who gives us the means to obtain them, and, tragically, more important than the ones for whose sake we get them - our brothers and sisters, our children, our neighbours.

Had the young man been ready to cheerfully sell everything and give it to the poor in order to become perfect, it would have shown that, for him, God Himself was the greatest joy. But he became sad upon hearing Jesus' words. Clearly his possessions were, at that time, more precious to him than God and his fellow men and women. Jesus knew all this in advance. But since the young man was serious in seeking perfection (and God wants all of us to do just that), Jesus showed him that there was still work to be done within his own heart and mind before he could reach the goal for which he was aiming.

Brothers and sisters, this instruction is important to every one who lives upon this earth. Let us pray for rich and poor. Let us pray for ourselves that we may not enter into the temptation of either scorning earthly goods and thereby not being good stewards of them, or treasuring these goods above all else - including God and our brothers and sisters.

Above all, let us pray for the increase in us of the pure desire to love nothing more than our infinitely adorable God, Who has revealed Himself as Father, Son and Holy Spirit - a Trinity of loving Persons, Whose love makes Him eternally One in Three and Three in One - the infinitely Good One.

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