In today’s Gospel, Our Lord says, “Anyone of you who does not renounce all his possessions cannot be my disciple.” This passage, of course, is very famous. Most of us have heard these words from Our Lord before. His words here are most memorable because of their radical nature. The categorical nature of this injunction is jarring. But we can ask ourselves, does Jesus really mean what he says? Additionally, what precisely does Jesus mean by these words?
To help bring these questions into greater focus, let us imagine that we are utterly poverty-stricken—possessing absolutely nothing beyond the tattered clothes on our back. How would this Gospel apply to us in this situation? We would have virtually nothing to renounce. Is Our Lord telling us that in order to be his disciple, in order to achieve salvation, in order to claim legitimately the name “Christian,” we would have to renounce even these few meager “possessions”? Is Jesus saying that we are his disciples merely by having nothing?
Evidently, the answer to these questions is, no. Just because we might have nothing does not mean that we are automatically Christ’s disciples. Our Lord is not speaking primarily in economic terms, but in life terms. In other words, Jesus does not have a specific sum or an amount in his mind that he wants us to attain. Rather, Jesus has in mind his saving goodness and love—which is incalculable.
Earlier in this same Gospel, Jesus says, “Which of you wishing to construct a tower does not first sit down and calculate the cost to see if there is enough for its completion?” Our Lord’s specific focus throughout this passage is upon what is required to achieve an end. In order to accomplish the goal of constructing a tower, one must first calculate what such a project requires. Means must be proportioned to the end. Projects require resources. A journey requires steps. In order to attain an end, to accomplish a project, and to arrive at a destination, we must do what is respectively required. No one can achieve an end through activities that are not ordered to the end. In this respect, even well-intended steps that are not rightly directed are unable to bring us to our final destination.
Our Lord is the ultimate end of the Christian life. He is not a means to some further end or destination. Jesus himself is the saving end. Therefore, he invites us to consider what means are required in order to be with him. And these means are not difficult to identify: in order to follow Jesus, Jesus—and Jesus alone!—must be our ultimate end. There can be no legitimate hope of attaining salvation if we don’t love Jesus as our supreme treasure and good.
Otherwise expressed, Jesus excludes all forms of what we might call “conjunctive Christianity.” There is nothing of “Jesus and” in the project of salvation. (For example: “Jesus and my possessions,” “Jesus and my career,” “Jesus and my time,” etc.) Any additions (any “ands”) to Jesus that are equated with his level of importance will ultimately render us incapable of following him.
If we want to be the disciple of Jesus, then we must be devoted to Jesus—entirely.
Of course, our family, our job, our health, our work, our talents, etc., are not objectively evil. These are all good things. Nonetheless, these good things are all, themselves, ordered to the goodness of God and to our salvation. We can only live a truly Christ-centered, God-directed human life if Christ is truly our center and God our ultimate desire. This is what it takes to be a true disciple of Jesus.In sum, Our Lord is not commanding us to keep one eye upon all the possessions that we have to renounce as much as he wants us to keep both of our eyes on him. The saint is not the one who doesn’t have anything (whether material or spiritual). Rather, the saint is the one who is so focused upon Jesus that they “forget” about all other things. These are the true disciples about whom Jesus speaks in today’s Gospel.
