Exclusivity

"Jesus, looking at him, loved him, and said to him : One thing is wanting : go, sell all that you have, give to the poor, and you will have a treasure in heaven; And come, follow me." "Peter began to say to him : Behold, we have all left and followed you." Mark 10: 21-28

A young man approaches Jesus and asks him how to have eternal life. He is an important man of Jewish society, in every respect. From his youth he obeyed the commandments of the Law. "What should I do to inherit eternal life ?" He asks. Jesus looks at him and loves him, not because he is sincere, but because he has a great problem : being under the Law, he is not sure to do enough. The Lord also discerned that this young man does not have an exclusive love for God and for his neighbor because he is very attached to his riches. Jesus said to him : "One thing is wanting : go, sell all that you have, and give to the poor, and you will have a treasure in heaven ; And come, follow me."

The young man leaves, very sad. Do not judge him : "It is easier to do without what one has than to detach oneself from what one has" (Quesnel).

The Lord does not want a double heart with his disciples. He desires that the love of those who follow him should always be a priority. It is not easy to abandon everything to follow Jesus. In this chapter of Mark's gospel, it is a question of selling his goods. In other cases, the Lord may ask to abandon a profession or a social position ...

Peter, who attended the interview, began to say to Jesus : "Behold, we have left everything and followed you." Jesus, who measured the renunciation of Peter or rather the exclusiveness of his love, granted him a hundredfold reward, although perhaps different from what the apostle hoped for : "There is no one who has Left home, or brothers ... because of me and because of the Gospel, and who now receive a hundred times as much ... with persecutions and, in the coming century, eternal life" (Mark 10:29, 30).

Our love for the Lord will have its reward, but it is a matter of faithfully following it to the end. He warns us : "Many of the former shall be last ; And the last shall be first" (Mark 10:31).

Source (To pleasing the Lord)