PARTS of the joy of my recently concluded Holy Land Pilgrimage were the company of two young brothers in their 20s and my conversations with them. Often after supper, we would still spend long hours together, talking and sharing deep thoughts about life and faith with one another.
One night, the older one asked me, “Father, what has been your most difficult and challenging work as a priest?” For a while I could not answer him–I’ve always enjoyed my work and have developed pastoral and administrative skills in order to overcome difficulties. “It’s not the work that I find hardest,” I told him. “It’s my struggle in dealing with self-effacement, that is of forgetting to be somebody of higher rank and being the “least of all.” “Even in Church, “ I explained to him, “there is a tendency among us priests to seek recognition, prestige, title, and popularity. “
This was the same struggle that the young man in this Sunday’s Gospel had–his inability to forget himself to follow Jesus. His biggest sacrifice was not to give up his material wealth, but his SELF. If he really wanted to be Jesus’ disciple, then he must forget his very self and follow Jesus. If he really wanted to be great in the kingdom of God, then he must be the least and the servant of all.
As we follow this Sunday’s Gospel, we see that the young man left sad because he could not give up this most endeared possession. He would have to lead a life devoid of ambitions and wealth.
“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 continued to explain in the Gospel. Here, Jesus was using a familiar sight of his time–camels hardly passing through the gates of the Jerusalem. Their owners would have to remove baggage’s from camels’ back in order for the animals to enter through the narrow gate, making the owners victims of theft, thereby losing their possessions.
To be a disciple means to lose one’s self and to abandon one’s life into the hands of God. This was what the young pilgrims in my group realized about Jesus when we prayed the Stations of the Cross through Via Dolorosa toward the Holy Sepulcher. Rejected and abandoned by his Father, Jesus emptied himself and carried the Cross to Calvary to fulfill his Father’s will of saving humanity.
As I traveled through Jordan and Holy Land, I sensed the radical way of life that Jesus preached, one that people of other religions would not easily embrace. It calls for letting go of hatred, of forgiving and loving enemies, of sharing wealth, and of giving up ambitions.
The international community and citizens of the Middle East would do well to resolve the ongoing Israeli-Arab conflict if they follow the teachings of Jesus Christ.
Many may claim that there is no simple solution to this conflict. But then again, there is no doubt that the radical discipleship of Jesus, which is a way of love, sacrifice, and forgiveness would bring about peace in countries throughout the world. Parts of the joy of my recently concluded Holy Land Pilgrimage were the company of two young brothers in their 20s and my conversations with them. Often after supper, we would still spend long hours together, talking and sharing deep thoughts about life and faith with one another.
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Reverend Rodel G. Balagtas attended St. John Seminary in Camarillo, California and earned his Doctor of Ministry in Preaching from Aquinas Institute of Theology in St. Louis, Missouri. For twenty years, he has been in the parish ministry of large multi-cultural communities. Since 2002, he has been the pastor of Immaculate Heart of Mary Church in Los Angeles. Please email Fr. Rodel at [email protected].
