Wealth is a problem for Jesus
because it stifles the capacity to hear and to respond. In Jesus’ view this capacity is found most of
all in the child. In fact, the passage just before that of the rich man is that
in which people are rebuked by the disciples for bringing children to Jesus and
he says, “Let the children come to me…for the kingdom of God belongs to such as
these. And then: “Amen, Amen, I say to you, whoever does not accept the kingdom
of God like a child will not enter it.” And Jesus calls his disciples
“children” "Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God!
From one perspective, Jesus is
like a father to them, begetting them into his new family. But from another
perspective, that of the relation of Jesus to his Father, Jesus is the Child, the archetypal child, and the
disciples are children in him of the one Father. From this perspective, Jesus
is the archetypal example and teacher of what it is to be a child before God.
Therefore there is no paternalistic attitude here on the part of the Jesus when
he calls his disciples ‘children’. Rather, it belongs to his desire to share
with his disciples his communion with the Father and the Holy Spirit by
granting them a share in his Sonship.
Ever-begotten anew by the
Father, who is “greater than I”, Jesus lives in the amazement of having
received himself as sheer gift. The Father has handed everything over to him
and this knowledge is for Jesus a source of infinite amazement, wonder and
gratitude. In love, he receives the gift and hands it over again to the Father
in total surrender. Jesus’ thirst is for his Father’s love, and in everything he
does he strives to abide in it. Jesus loves children because they thirst for
love, they feel his love, surrender to it and take it with them into their
lives as a matter of course. They yearn for love. They receive the gift of the
kingdom as the answer to their yearning.
Reflection by Father Timothy.