By now all the Churches are in the time of Advent. In the Byzantine Churches, Advent is evidently more an 
ascetical season than a liturgical one. The Advent fast starts on November 15, but for some reason there is no special liturgical preparation until the second Sunday before Christmas. So the Gospel readings until then follow the usual cycle of Sundays after Pentecost—which means they were not chosen for Advent preparation, which means that preachers have to work hard to try to adapt them to the season! (The non-Byzantine Churches of both East and West seem to have done a better job of liturgical preparation.)
This Sunday we have the story of the rich man who wanted to know what he had to do in order to inherit eternal life (Lk. 18:18-27). Perhaps we should narrow down the terms of his question and, for the moment, simply ask what we need to do to prepare worthily for Christmas. We may receive the general but indispensable answer that the rich man received: Keep the commandments; do not commit adultery, do not kill, do not steal, do not bear false witness. OK, for Advent I’m going to give up adultery, murder, stealing, and lying. But I think that most of us who are trying to follow Christ don’t do these things anyway.
After counseling him to keep the commandments, Jesus told the rich man: “One thing you still lack. Sell all that you have and distribute it to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.” Now I think we’re getting somewhere. Keeping the commandments is necessary but not sufficient. Even if we keep all ten commandments all the time, there is something we still lack. The thing we lack may not be exactly the same for everyone. For the rich man, what was necessary was that he divest himself of his riches and give to the poor. For a poor man, the one thing lacking would be something else. But is there something that applies to all of us, rich or poor, something that everyone needs to do in order to be saved, that goes beyond keeping the Ten Commandments?
Jesus said we need to have our treasure in Heaven, and that we need to follow Him. So the one thing lacking in each of us, even if we are careful to avoid breaking the commandments, is the total gift of ourselves to God in the personal attachment to Jesus and whatever He asks of us. It is possible to avoid the evils that the commandments forbid but still not be on fire with love for God, still not be willing to sacrifice ourselves for Him, still hold back something for ourselves, still maintain a certain comfort zone within which we can consider ourselves righteous without having to test this righteousness severely at the Cross of Jesus.
No one of us can honestly say: “I am doing everything possible to serve the Lord; my love for Jesus is flawless; my sacrifice is total; my discipleship is impeccable; my union with God is complete.” (If you do say that, I refer you back to the commandments and ask you to give up lying for Advent.) So there’s something lacking in all of us, and this is what the Lord would have us reflect upon during this time of Advent. What do I lack in my relationship to God, in my love for Him, in my fidelity to Him, in my willingness to sacrifice and do penance for Him and for the good of souls? In what ways do I walk away sad when He asks something difficult of me? What do I cling to that keeps me from following Jesus with my whole heart and the best of my time and energy?
If we look at what comes before and after this section of the Gospel—which means putting it in context—we can discover two elements of what our total gift of self is supposed to consist in. The first one leads directly into today’s Gospel passage, for it explicitly mentions what one must do to enter the Kingdom of God. Here Jesus says: “Whoever does not receive the Kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it.” (I guess the rich man came on the scene a few minutes too late, for he immediately asked what he needed to do to enter the Kingdom.)
Jesus doesn’t explain here precisely what it means to receive the Kingdom like a child, but in another place He says that to become like a child for the sake of entering the Kingdom is to humble oneself to the no-account status of a child. So there was probably something more than greed or attachment to possessions that kept the rich man from giving it all up. There was probably some pride lurking beneath it all. To sell his possessions doesn’t simply mean that now he has no possessions; it also means he has to adopt the social status of one who has no possessions. He has to enter a lower stratum of society; he has suddenly to be on the same level of those he may have formerly looked down upon. And this may sting just as much or more than having to go without the luxuries of life.
So part of what is lacking in us may very well be humility. Pride is the chief obstacle to giving ourselves wholly to God, for if we are wholly given to God, He is going to require us to love as He loves, to be forgiving and patient, to put ourselves on the same level as others and not to look down on anyone because we think we are more gifted or privileged or righteous than they are. So humbling ourselves in our own estimation to the status of lowly children will in itself clear away much that stands in the way of our total gift of self to God, our seeking treasure only in Heaven and thus following Jesus alone.
Another element of our gift of self can be found in what comes after this Gospel reading: Jesus’ prediction of his passion and death. Humility is one test of our commitment; suffering is another. Our surrender to God in faith and love will never be complete—there will always be something lacking—if we are unwilling to go to the Cross with Jesus, if we do not accept the truth that sacrifice is an integral and inescapable element of life and of love, and that sacrifice usually entails suffering in one form or another.
Pride was the obstacle to becoming like children, but fear is the obstacle to embracing the Cross. No one wants to suffer; we instinctively recoil from it. But Jesus walked purposefully toward the Cross, confident of his Father’s love and determined to do his will at all costs. There was nothing lacking in Jesus’ total self-gift to the Father and to us. St Paul sums it up in Philippians by saying that Jesus emptied Himself and humbled Himself even unto death on the Cross.
So then, we are called, if we wish to enter the Kingdom of God, to renounce pride and to humble ourselves, receiving the Kingdom like lowly and innocent children. And we are called to let go of our fear of sacrifice and suffering, for the Cross is the ultimate test of our willingness to follow Jesus and to love God with our whole heart, mind, soul, and strength.
This is not going to be easy. We have not only to contend with our own limitations and weaknesses, but as St Paul reminds us in the epistle (Eph. 6:10-17), we are also contending with “spiritual hosts of wickedness,” the demons who are hurling fiery darts at us to bring us down, to turn us away from our efforts to obey the word of God. So the Apostle says we need to put on the armor of God, though this is not some sort of exterior spiritual force-field. The armor of God has to be worn, not on the outside, but on the inside! It consists of truth, righteousness, faith, and the Gospel of Christ. We bear these by grace, which is the divine indwelling. Humility and self-sacrifice will be of great service to us in maintaining this spiritual armor. That is one more reason why they are necessary for us if we are going to enter the Kingdom of Heaven—the only Kingdom that is worth giving all to receive it.
So if we wish to inherit eternal life—and if we wish to live this Advent fruitfully so as to be well-disposed to receive an abundance of grace at Christmas—let us not limit ourselves merely to the avoidance of adultery and murder and the grosser sins. Let us carefully examine ourselves to see what it is we still lack, and then sincerely ask God what He would like us to do about that. What is impossible for us is possible for God. We need not go away sad. Let us joyfully follow Jesus without counting the cost, and have our treasure in Heaven.
