Having Nothing and yet Possessing Everything
- Fr Raphael Ma, CR
- Mark 10: 17 - 30
A Resurrectionist Vocation Minute for October 13, 28th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Having nothing and yet possessing everything.
Today’s Gospel is one of the most emblematic passages in the Gospels for the vow of poverty. The vow of poverty is what we call in religious life, an “evangelical counsel” – that is, a counsel, an invitation, a piece of advice, and not a commandment, and one which is evangelical, which comes from the Gospel, is “Gospel” in nature.
Each in their own way, the vows of chastity, poverty, and obedience are a way of saying “yes” to an invitation from God. Last Saturday, I attended the St. Jerome’s Feast – an annual scholarship fundraising dinner for St. Jerome’s University. The keynote speaker was Sister Marie Taylor, SSND, who celebrated her 80th anniversary of religious life this year. Of the many things she said, one which stuck with me was how she described our eventual death as the final “yes” that a religious person gives to God.
The vows of chastity, poverty, and obedience certainly involve saying “no” to particular things, but that “no” is only for the sake of being free to say a “yes” to God in a particular way. What is one area of your life where God might be inviting you to say “yes” right now?
“Life according to the vows helps us to develop as persons and to attain Christian maturity. The vows are the expression of the free and total gift of ourselves to God. We accept the detachment implied in the observance of our vows in order to become more firmly attached to Christ. The practice of our vows contributes to the realization of our common life and to the fulfillment of our mission.”