Commentary on the Gospel of Monday, August 16, 2021

On the front table of my grandparents’ home is a gold chalice gifted to them by a priest on their wedding day over 61 years ago. This summer my family gathered to celebrate their wedding anniversary with a Mass in which the priest used this chalice, that has been used at milestone anniversary Masses throughout my grandparents’ marriage. After Mass, I asked my grandparents more about the chalice and my grandfather eventually said, “God forbid there is ever a fire in the house, I am grabbing my wife and that chalice.”

While an experience I never hope happens to someone, a question I’ve been asked is just that, “if there is a fire, what do you grab as you get out of the house?” Noting that the safety of living beings is the most important, my list of items has changed over my life, and it used to be a laundry list of 25 different things. But this is Jesus’ point in the Gospel – at the end of days, it is not the things we have that matter but how we treated another.

The commandments Jesus listed out for the young man are all about relationships with the people around us, and in expanding upon them at the end, Jesus reminds us that ultimately we are created to love and care for others. He calls the young man to give up what gets in his way of loving and caring for his neighbors which, by the looks of it for this young man, is attachment to his possessions.

At the end of the day, my grandfather cares about the most important relationships in his life – with his wife and with Jesus. In responding to the goodness of God’s deep and generous love for us, we turn to our neighbor in striving to have good, right, and life-giving relationship, relationships that ultimately bring us closer to God.

Let us reflect:

• What gets in the way of my caring for and loving my neighbor?

• What grace might I ask of God to let go of those attachments?

• How might I give more to the relationships in my life?

Let us pray:

Dear Jesus, you spent your life showing us ways to live that honor God. As we strive to do your work on earth, we seek right relationship with our neighbors and the grace to let go of what keeps us from them. We know that loving our neighbor is not always easy, but with You, all things are possible. We pray for the gifts we need and in gratitude for the community we have. Amen.