Jesus, looking at him, loved him
Yesterday, we started our reflection on the spiritual journey to eternal life. And coincidentally, last evening I served at a Mass for a deceased relative. As I sat listening to the homily, my thoughts ran to this journey that each of us must make.
The gentleman in Mark 10:17-30 had asked Jesus ‘What must I do to inherit eternal life?’ And he replied ‘keep the commandments’ to which he responded ‘I have kept them from my youth’. St Mark goes on to tell us that Jesus looked at him and loved him.
I thought that my deceased relative had tried to keep the commandments from his youth as well, and concluded that Jesus loved him also. We also try to keep the commandments and in turn, Jesus loves us too. Yet, so often we fail to internalize this, especially when things are not going our way.
The Church encourages us to look at our journey towards eternal life as a pilgrimage. A pilgrimage is a special type of journey. One that invites us to embrace being uncomfortable. We go beyond the edges of our sense of security, it stretches us in new ways, breaking us open. Pilgrimage calls us to a radical sense of mystery. God works in ways we don’t understand.
Thinking of our life as a pilgrimage to eternal life encourages us to have hope. Our life becomes an adventure with challenges along the way but with a confident hope that we would arrive at our destiny of eternal life with a loving Jesus. It invites us to trust that each step, whether joyful or painful, has a purpose, guiding us closer to God’s presence.
Pilgrimage also teaches us to travel lightly, shedding attachments and distractions that hinder our relationship with Christ. Along the way, we learn to rely on God’s grace, to see His hand in the unexpected, and to grow in faith as we journey toward our eternal home.
I think it is in this aspect, shedding attachments, that the gentleman encountered a challenge, that he was not ready to overcome…… but more about this in tomorrow’s post.
In the meantime, I encourage you to look back on your life as pilgrimage, understanding the challenges you encountered and overcame as a way of growth and development. I encourage you to read my book on my journey back, to understand my pilgrimage to this point, as a way of exploring your own, by clicking on the following link My Pilgrimage Book Link.
Also, you may want to join my retreat on navigating life transitions as stages of your pilgrimage, by clicking on the following link Navigating Life Transitions Retreat Link