28th Sunday of Ordinary time: 2024 Year B

Mark 10:17-30 “what must I do to inherit eternal life?"

Jesus again said to them in reply, "Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to pass through (the) eye of (a) needle than for one who is rich to enter the kingdom of God."

Jesus on numerous occasions tells us that going to heaven requires an active pursuit of Christ and not mere being relatively good. Jn 14:6 “Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” Mt 7:13ss “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the way that leads to life, and only a few find it.” Mt 7:21 “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of My Father in heaven.”

Christ is our Saviour and there is no other. In Him we hope, to Him do we entrust our lives, following Him, loving Him, serving Him. Act 4:12 “Salvation exists in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.”

All this speaks to the necessity of actively seeking God and the eternal life that He offers. We must work spiritually to attain heaven, we can't expect it as our right, we must seek it as our goal and aim in life. Mt 13:44ss “The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field.” “the kingdom of heaven is like a pearl of great value” Selling everything to obtain this treasure, to obtain this pearl, to obtain heaven. Mt 6:19ss; “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal.”

Mt 7:7ss "Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened." Ask for it is God who gives grace; seek because it is God who reveals the way that leads to life; knock because it is God who opens the gates of heaven.

Salvation is from Christ and Christ alone, and we are to seek Him with all our hearts, minds and strength for it through Him that we can enter the Kingdom of God. Without Christ what hope do we have? Won’t we be lost following our own whims and desire, ignorant of God’s Will and commandments. How could we possibly find the narrow gate and way that leads heaven? Jesus looked at them and said, "For human beings it is impossible, but not for God. All things are possible for God." CCC 2549. states, "It remains for the holy people, with grace from on high, to struggle to obtain the good things God promises. In order to possess and contemplate God, Christ's faithful mortify their cravings and, with the grace of God, prevail over the seductions of pleasure and power"

St. John Bosco wrote of his vision he had on Dec. 6, 1876 where He said that “all was blue as the calmest sea, though what I saw was not water …” He described “broad imposing avenues divided the plain into grand gardens of indescribable beauty.” He heard “music most sweet — so delightful and enchanting a melody that” he “could never adequately describe. …” he saw St Dominic Savio and a group of boys coming toward Him. Dominic Savio stood an arms’ length away from Don Bosco. “[A] crown of roses encircled his head.” A dialogue ensued:

Dominic Savio: ‘You are in the abode of happiness … where one experiences every joy, every delight.’

Don Bosco: “Is this the reward of the just?”

Dominic Savio: “Not at all! Here we do not enjoy supernatural happiness, but only a natural one, though greatly magnified.”

Don Bosco: “Everything here then is natural?”

Dominic Savio: “Yes, only enhanced by God’s power.”

Don Bosco: “Oh! I thought this was Paradise.”

Dominic Savio: “Oh no, no! … No human eye can look upon the beauty of Paradise.”

Don Bosco: “And this music … is it the music which you enjoy in heaven?”

Dominic Savio: “No, no absolutely not!”

Don Bosco: “Are these then natural sounds?”

Dominic Savio: “Yes, of course, but brought to perfection by God’s infinite power.”

Don Bosco: “And this light which outshines the very sun’s brilliance — is it a supernatural light? Is it heavenly light?”

Dominic Savio: “It is only natural light, fortified and perfect by God’s omnipotence.”

Don Bosco: “Might I be allowed to see a little supernatural light?”

Dominic Savio: “No one can see it until he has come to see God as He is. The faintest ray of that light would instantly strike one dead, because the human senses are not sturdy enough to endure it.”

Don Bosco: “Could there possibly be a natural light lovelier than this?”

Dominic Savio: “Yes, but if you could only see a single ray of natural light increased by just one degree, you would go into an ecstasy … I’ll give you a proof of what I say …”

(Don Bosco writes, “Instantly from the remotest heavens, a sudden streak of light flashed through space, fine as a thread, but so brilliant, so piercing that my gaze faltered in pain. … The filament of light was a hundred million times brighter than the sun; its brilliance could have lit up our entire universe. … After some minutes, I opened my eyes again …)

Don Bosco: “Was not that a heavenly beam?”

Dominic Savio: “It was not a supernatural light,” Dominic replied, “though ever so much superior in brilliance than the light of the world. It was nothing more than earthly light rendered ever so dazzling by God’s power. Even if a vast array of light as strong as the ray you saw at the end of that crystal sea were to cover the whole world, it would still not give you an idea of the splendour of Paradise.”

Don Bosco: “Then what do you enjoy in Paradise?”

Dominic Savio: “Ah, that defies all telling. The happiness of heaven no mortal beings can ever know until they die and are reunited with their maker. We enjoy God — nothing else!”