“Empty yourself”

It is funny how the same verse of the Bible means different things to us at different times. Previously, when I read about the young man who wanted to follow Jesus and was told to sell all his properties, give the money away and follow Jesus to gain the treasures in Heaven, I have one conclusion. That is, if you want to be a Christian, you have to be darn crazy, poor and suffering. It is like a very silly, crazy and impossible thing to do, no?

Well, last night, I ‘program’ my mind to wake up for the 7 am mass because it is the school holidays and that means, no traffic jam and I can get to church in less than 6 minutes. Wake up, I did. But it was raining. So, I was fighting with self whether to brave the wet and cold morning or continue to snuggle back into bed.

At the last 20 minutes, I decided to get out of bed, take a shower and head to church since I couldn’t fall back to sleep. Father FA gave a homily about the above. However, this time, I hear a different thing. Empty yourself. Father FA emphasised on this. And I realised that Jesus is not asking me to sell my properties (not like I have much) but rather to drop my prejudices, hang-ups, comfort zone, cosy routine, materialistic preferences and maybe my anger, disappointments and other negative feelings so that I can follow Him.

Matthew chapter 16……
, You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
20 The young man said to him, “All these I have observed; what do I still lack?”
21 Jesus said to him, “If you would be perfect, go, sell what you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.”
22 When the young man heard this he went away sorrowful; for he had great possessions.

Of course, the homily didn’t touch on them but since I am such a clever girl hahaha, I come to the conclusions myself. And that’s when I dare to say, “I will follow You, Lord”. I do see the resemblance of the young man who seems to have done all the ‘perfect things’ like Jesus commanded, i.e. part of the commandments of Thou Shalt Not etc etc and yet, he is not quite there yet. He wants to be totally perfect like me, Miss Perfect. So, he asked Jesus what else he needs to do. And Jesus said to drop everything. He chickened out because he is rich. I suppose since I don’t have much money, I don’t need to chicken out and walk away sorrowful.

It is not enough for us to stick to the commandments only. We have to get out of the box, do things differently and venture into deeper waters. In conclusion, no one asks us Christians to be beggars and paupers because we need to glorify and magnify God’s greatness and power. Otherwise, if every one of us are beggars and paupers, who would want to be part of our gang, right?

In the end, the trip in the rain to church was very rewarding.