Today, we see this young man in the Gospel who found himself in a predicament. Why? Because, he asked Jesus a question. That’s what happens when we question Jesus! Seriously, looking at the Gospel, we see a man who wanted to be confirmed in his goodness. He knew that he had lived a life according to the commandments. He also had been blessed with many riches, which the ancient Jews would have seen as a sign of God’s blessing. He was shocked when Jesus answered his question. “Go sell what you have, and give to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven; then come follow me.” This man was shocked. Instead of being confirmed in his goodness, he was confronted with his sinfulness.

You see - the ten commandments is the minimum standard for us to live a life of discipleship of Jesus Christ. To be in heaven with God forever in heaven, we need not the minimum but the maximum. The maximum is a life completely and totally lived for Jesus Christ. How many of you want to be Saints in heaven. I want to be a saint and at the end of my life here on earth, I hope to see all of you there (well except for the children - you shouldnt be done with earth just yet.) For us to be with God in heaven, we have to be totally for him. Completely, 100%, not holding anything back - totally for God.

The reality is that we place other things constantly as more important than God. It may be a house, or a friend; it may be material things, or a position at work; it may be what others think of us or what we think of ourselves. All of these can intrude into the rightful place of God. Unless we are willing to let go of all these things including those which are of great blessing then we will not be able to enter the kingdom of God in heaven.

Now, Jesus Christ is not telling you that you have to sell your houses tonight. I dont want to see all of you homeless. But, what he is saying is that you have to be detached from all these things. What does that mean? It means that you have to be willing to let go of these things, including the great blessings, so that God is first and your all in all in your life. Think of the great scripture verse of Abraham and Isaac. Isaac was the promised child by God to Abraham through which all future descendants would flow. What a great blessing he was! God asked Abraham to offer back to him this blessing, his son Isaac.

A clear sign that we are attached to something is if it is too important to us that we wont let go of it. Are there things in your life, a material object, your time, your hobbies, some aspect of yourself that you cant let go of. The idea of someone else having it or sharing it horrifies you. Well, this is a sign that you have much to grow in detachment. And unless we are detached of all our things, we will not be able to enter the kingdom of heaven.

Now, thanks be to God, he set up a thing called purgatory. You see for most of us, we do not reach this state of perfection here on earth but need yet to be purified. For that reason, out of his mercy and love God gives us a process of purification called purgatory. Purgatory is not a place. People who are in purgatory are on their way to Heaven. It is simply a process of placing God completely and totally as one’s reason for being. Its a big process of detachment.

This is tough stuff, can it be possible that we really be detached of all these things. For this reason, Jesus gives us a beautiful image. “It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for one who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.” “It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for one who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.”

As first glance, this image seems absurd. We think of a big hairy beast being shoved through a pin of a sewing needle. What a bloody mess! It could never happen unless some cessation of physical properties by God.

But there is a better analogy for this. The eye of a needle was a place in the walls of the ancient cities where the camel was to pass through. It was kind of a security measure. Tomorrow, I will be flying out for Rome and I will be going through all sorts of security measures. I will have to take off my shoes, my belt, anything else that is metal, I have to turn over my backpack and my belongings and I walk through the medal detector. I am just glad that I get to keep my clothes on! Well the eye of the needle was the security mechanism for the ancient cities.

Now the eye of the needle was tight. For a camel to pass through the eye of the needle, it had to make it through a perfect fit. It would be kind of like a Zach Rash 82 yard touchdown pass. That was an amazing play - perfectly in step. Anyhow all the baggage would have to be removed from the camel and the camel would have to go down on its knees and as it crawled through the eye of the needle, it would be pulled through. Wow- now that’s detachment. For us, we can not do this thing on our own power. But as Jesus said, “For Human beings it is impossible, but not for God. All things are possible for God.”

We are given the power when we come to the sacraments. When we come to the Mass or the sacrament of Confession, we receive the power to detach from the riches in our lives - the things, the positions, the images that we have concocted. When we kneel down in prayer in our own homes, we allow God to give us the strength to let go of things in our lives and put God in the first place. For us to be a disciple of Jesus Christ, we have to begin this process of letting go. Its complete only when or if we enter the Pearly gates, the heavenly Jerusalem. We can only do this if we pass through the eye of the needle.

Now, I would like to take this time to talk a little bit about the political situation we are in. I think it fits well the Gospel we have and so this would be a good time to do so. We know its an election season, and certainly I cant and neither should I tell you who to vote for. But what I can talk about is the issues and our obligation to vote. To vote is a moral obligation. Moreover, to vote is a moral act. We will be held accountable by God based on what we choose. With voting in choosing a certain person for President or for the senate, we are participating in their ideas in some way or form and we will be held accountable for that participation. That is what I mean by to vote is a moral act. Its not separate from our life of faith but is part of our faith life.

There are many issues out there. There are economic, debt, foreign policy, immigration national health care, religious liberty, and some social issues dominating this election season. The Church speaks out about particular social issues in today’s age. The Church understands that there are certain moral acts that are always evil. It is what we call intrinsic evils. No matter how we look at it, they will always be an evil. No matter one’s intention, no matter one’s state in life, they will always be wrong. Examples of this are rape and slavery. No matter how you look at rape it is wrong. No matter how you look at slavery it is an evil. Thus they are intrinsic evils. This is different from capital punishment. The Church understands that there may be a situation where capital punishment may be allowed based on the need to defend a group of people from someone. This case is not present in America and we need to work on ridding ourselves of capital punishment. The reality though is that unlike slavery and rape, capital punishment is not an intrinsic evil.

Today’s age has a variety of intrinsic evils that have become acceptable. Euthanasia, embryonic stem cell work, cloning, a fight to have same sex unions to be recognized as marriages are all intrinsic evils. However, they are all dwarfed in the magnitude of the evil of abortion. We have become comfortable with the fact that millions of people have been killed in our country each year! We have allowed ourselves to coexist with this reality. Would we coexist with someone who was willing to enslave a group of people in concentration camps, yet promises to have a good economy.

No issue can be compared in importance to this one issue. Nothing with the economy, nothing with immigration, nothing with health care. Nothing is as important as an individual’s right to life.

It is our responsibility to form our consciences and make a moral decision to vote. We need to understand the issues at stake and the morality of the ideas that our candidates proclaim. For this reason, next week there will be a bulletin insert that will speak of how we can form our conscience towards faithful citizenship.

Upon our judgement Jesus is going to ask us what we did for the most vulnerable among us. He will ask us if we stood up for the children that were being killed. What will our answer be?

“It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for one who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.”