The Way to Eternal Life:
Doing the Will of the Father
by Father Gerard Beigel, S.T.D.
The question, "how to be good," is engraved as deeply in the human heart as the question about God's existence and attributes. Just as all cultures have pondered the existence and nature of God, so, too, all cultures have reflected on what a person must do to be good. The two issues are actually inseparably linked. Knowing God and being good are like two sides of a coin.
Within Christian history a regrettable tendency has arisen to set faith in God and good works in opposition to one another. Some Christians argue that we are saved by faith alone -- that good works contribute nothing to our salvation. This "faith alone" theory is sharply at odds with both the teaching of Jesus and the teaching of the Apostles, as recorded in the New Testament. Jesus not only revealed God the Father and called people to faith in Him. He also taught people the necessity of doing good and being good in order to abide in fellowship with himself and the Father. Far from downplaying the importance of good works, Jesus commanded us to "be perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect" (Matt 5:48). He also declared that "only those who do the will of my heavenly Father will enter the kingdom of heaven" (Matt 7:21). In a similar way, St. Paul taught that we are saved by "faith expressing itself through love" (Gal 5:6). Moreover, the "faith alone" theory is explicitly denied in the Bible: "a person is justified by works and not by faith alone" (James 2:24).
In this "Year of the Father" proclaimed by Pope John Paul II, the Church is invited to a deeper experience of the Father and His merciful love. But no one can abide in the Father's love unless he or she is fully committed to doing good. "Faith without works is dead" (James 2:26). The intrinsic link between faith in God the Father and doing good can be seen in the various themes that the Pope has proposed for the Church's reflection during this Year of the Father. The believer's pilgrimage to the Father begins with reconciliation, which involves turning from sin, turning back to the Father and embracing goodness. Through this reconciliation the heart is opened to the power of God's love. Charity (divine love) becomes the foundation of a new life for the believer. Through their participation in God's love, Christians are called to fulfill the commandments of God, which are summarized in the twofold command to love God and neighbor. Indeed, it is impossible to proceed on our "pilgrimage to the Father," unless we "put on love" (Colossians 3:14).
The necessity of doing the Father's will was constantly emphasized by Jesus, but perhaps no where more poignantly than in the story of the rich young man who approached Jesus to ask, "what good deed must I do, to have eternal life?" (Matt 19:16-30). Jesus' answer to the young man reveals the very heart of what it means to fulfill the two-fold commandment of love. The Lord first spoke to him about the necessity of obeying all the commandments concerning the love of neighbor. And then he beckoned him into the way of "perfection," revealing to the young man how he could truly love God. In this essay we will ponder Jesus' encounter with the young man, which is such a rich source of teaching about obedience to the commandments, doing the will of the Father and "entering into life." Without these things we cannot truly know and love God the Father.
Jesus and the Rich Young Man (Matt 19:16-30)
The story of Jesus and the rich young man reveals the deep links between Christian morality and faith in Jesus Christ. It is not surprising the Pope John Paul II chose this text to introduce his teaching on Christian morality in the encyclical Veritatis Splendor. What is most fascinating about the story is that Jesus' counsel to the rich young man is specifically personal yet universal in its significance. Jesus spoke directly to the young man's heart, addressing the particular obstacle that would keep him from following Jesus: his attachment to material riches. But precisely because Jesus spoke very personally to the depths of the young man's heart, his words also have a universal claim on all people. This seems a paradox, but as we contemplate this point, the power of Jesus' words will begin to echo in our own hearts.
As we ponder Jesus' words, we must remember that only he has the power to open the depths of the human heart to the life and love of God. The important point about Jesus' words to the rich young man is that these words are indeed a manifestation of Christ's power to pierce the human heart. Although every person's encounter with Jesus is unique, in each encounter with the Lord the truth about the human heart is always brought sharply into view. This truth about the heart is simply that Jesus alone is the unique way to the Father, the unique revealer of the Truth about God and the human heart. We can call this truth about the human heart and Jesus Christ, "Truth" with a capital "T." It is the Truth that reveals the meaning of human life, the nature of human happiness and the true destiny of every man, woman and child. It is the Truth that moves a person to open his or her heart to obey God perfectly and to share in the abyss of God's own life. This was the Truth that beckoned the rich young man in his encounter with Jesus. And this same Truth beckons all who hear the story about the rich young man.
Unlike many people who approached Jesus to request a miracle or a healing, the rich young man had a far loftier motive. He wanted to know "what good deed must I do, to have eternal life?" (Matt 19:16) He was zealous to do good and to possess eternal life. Unlike many people today, the rich young man understood that goodness ultimately concerns our relationship to God and our call to eternal life -- that is, to heaven itself. If we are to focus our attention on "doing good deeds" and possessing "eternal life," we have to realize that these goals do not mean achieving the best results here on earth -- be it through comfort, success, money, fame or optimal health. Today, it is not uncommon to meet people who have no lively interest in God or heaven, yet claim that they are "good." Usually, what they mean is that they are pursuing, more or less successfully, the above goals -- all of which are merely earthly. The rich young man's question is profound precisely because it directs our thinking about goodness beyond the narrow limits of earthly life to God and heaven.
When Jesus heard the young man's question, he laid even greater emphasis on the connection between doing good and knowing God. The Lord said, "Why do you ask me about what is good? One there is who is good. If you would enter life, keep the commandments" (Matt 19:17). In effect, Jesus is saying, "if you really want to know what is good, you must look with single-minded devotion to God and obey His commandments."
There are two aspects of goodness that Jesus points out in this answer to the young man. To be good, a person must first aim his or her life in the right direction -- to God. God is Goodness itself, and in the brilliant light of God's Goodness, we understand that all human good deeds are derivative and secondary. The foundation of true morality is God Himself. The absolute goodness of God is the standard by which all human deeds are to be measured. No one in history has emphasized more clearly this truth about morality than Jesus Christ did. But as we compare the absolute goodness of God and the limited and imperfect goodness of human beings, we are faced with a stark question: "who, then, can be good?" It seems that Jesus' response to the young man fixes an unbridgeable gulf between mankind and God. Indeed, the disciples responded to Jesus' words to the rich young man by asking, "who then can be saved?" (Matt 19:25). But Jesus responded to them, "with men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible" (Matt 19:26). The gulf between man and God can be bridged because "with God" all things are possible.
"With God" it is possible for human beings to keep the commandments and attain the goodness of God. Indeed, this is not simply something possible for people, it is even commanded by Jesus Christ. As the Lord emphasized the absolute goodness of God to the young man, he also instructed him to "keep the commandments." This is the second element of Jesus' response about how to do good and enter eternal life. We are not saved by faith alone. Obedience to God's commandments is also demanded. As Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount, "not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven" (Matt 7:21). Of course, this doing the Father's will is something that can only be done "with God" -- that is, with God's help. As Jesus continued his dialogue with the rich young man, he would explain to him the secret of doing the Father's will "with God's help."
Doing the Father's Will: the Love of Neighbor and the Love of God
The young man responded to Jesus' command to "keep the commandments" by asking, "which ones?" From the direction the conversation would take it seems likely that the young man zealously observed the Ten Commandments, but still felt something lacking in his heart. He had a deep desire not only to obey the commandments, but also to attain the perfect goodness of God in his deeds. Jesus responded fully to this desire in the young man's heart. In two stages, the Lord took the young man to the very threshold of the "eternal life" that he so eagerly sought.
The Love of Neighbor: Jesus highlights two aspects of doing the will of God the Father: first, the love of neighbor, and second, the love of God. Jesus began his response to the young man's question "which commandments" he had to keep by first listing those commandments that concern the love of one's neighbor.
How significant that Jesus begins his teaching about doing the Father's will by emphasizing our moral responsibilities toward other human beings! The way toward the perfect goodness and love of God passes unfailingly through the normal everyday deeds by which we respect and love others. How can we expect to know and love God if we fail to love other human beings around us? As St. John says in his letter, "he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, cannot love God whom he has not seen" (1 John 5:20). The Son of God did not come to earth to reveal a secret "spiritual" way to God that bypasses the practical ways that we must respect and love all those we meet. Jesus did not come to abolish or change the commandments, but to fulfill them.
In the sphere of love of neighbor, Jesus' teaching in the Sermon on the Mount (Matt 5-7) makes clear that the Father's will concerns not just our external deeds, but also our interior attitudes and desires. With regard to killing, Jesus says, "but I say to you that every one who is angry with his brother shall be liable to judgment" (Matt 5:22). With regard to adultery, the Lord says, "but I say to you that every one who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart" (Matt 5:28). In other words, Jesus applies the law of love of neighbor even to the interior attitudes that we harbor in our hearts. What the Lord is promising is that with the help of God it is possible for human beings to uproot sinful attitudes from the heart. With the help of God it is possible for human beings to be free to love their neighbor "from the heart."
The Way of Perfection -- the Love of God: The second dimension of doing the Father's will concerns the love of God. When the rich young man heard Jesus list the commandments concerning the love of neighbor, he said, "all these I have observed, what do I still lack?" (Matt 19:20). And the Lord responded:
Although there is no mention of God the Father in this saying, it is clear that Jesus is explaining here how to fulfill the commandment of the love of God. Whenever Jesus was asked about the greatest commandment, he always linked together the love of God and the love of neighbor (see Matt 22:34-40). Since the first part of the Lord's direction to the rich young man focuses upon the love of neighbor, this saying on how to "be perfect" obviously concerns the love of God. "If you would be perfect... " That is, "if you would love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, then do this: sell what you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me." These words of Jesus have the power to plunge anyone whose heart is open into the unfathomable depths of God's love.
As we listen to the Lord's saying on the perfect love of God, we must note not only all the respective parts of the saying, but also how each part of the saying is related to the others in giving us a full description of the love of God. We might imagine the saying as a suspension bridge. The first tower of the bridge is the call to "perfection" itself. The second tower of the bridge would be the last part of the saying -- about "coming" to Jesus and "following" him. In between the two towers is the part of the saying about "selling" one's possessions and "giving" to the poor and "having treasure in heaven." The importance of these elements in the middle, in a sense, "hangs upon" the call to perfection and the call to follow Jesus. Let us consider in turn these three parts of Jesus' teaching about the love of God.
If you would be perfect: The first part of Jesus' teaching makes it absolutely clear that the love of God calls us to perfection. How could it be otherwise? To love God, to be in communion with Him, means that we would touch the very perfection that abides in God. How great is the dignity of man and woman! Human beings are created "for God." We are created "for perfection." Now of course we cannot achieve this perfection on our own -- it is impossible for man. But not for God -- "with God" all things are possible! With God, it is even possible for our motives and deeds to be so purified that the perfection of God begins to be reflected in our own good deeds. Jesus proclaimed this so clearly at the conclusion of his teaching on the Law of God within the Sermon on the Mount: "you must be perfect, as your Father in heaven is perfect" (Matt 5:48).
This way of perfection necessarily passes through Jesus Christ, the only Son of God. He alone is the one who brings us abiding union with God the Father. The fruit of this union is that our own actions and deeds plunge us ever more deeply into the love of God. All the deeds done by a Christian, even work or simple daily tasks, can be done before God -- "before your Father in secret" (see Matt 6:1-18). In other words, every action of a Christian can be done "out of love for God." Jesus offers humanity a truly magnificent way to fulfill the commandment to love God! When all our actions are conformed to the love of God we are truly "perfect" because in all we do we are touching the perfection of God Himself.
Jesus' word about perfection effects a revolution in our understanding of morality. No one in history has emphasized as clearly as did Jesus Christ the perfect goodness of God, which radically transcends all the limited and partial strivings toward goodness by human beings. But, at the same time, in Jesus Christ this perfect goodness of God has taken flesh and walks among us. In other words, in Jesus Christ Perfection became incarnate, walked among us and offered us the means of entering into and sharing in God's perfect goodness. Perfection -- which has seemed inaccessible to all human moral systems -- is being offered to the world in Jesus Christ. This is why Jesus does not call people to a limited fulfillment of God's commandments. Unlike many systems of morality that excuse or condone weakness and sin, the Lord calls us to perfection itself. For this reason we must never give up struggling against our sinful tendencies. By God's grace we can repent of our sin, be changed in heart, draw close to Jesus Christ and enter more and more into the way of perfection. The call to perfection is at the very heart of what it means to fulfill the commandment of the love of God.
Sell what you possess, give to the poor and you will have treasure in heaven: The way of perfection in loving God is most easily traveled by means of a generous and poor spirit. Generosity and poverty are vital parts of the perfect love of God—this is true whether or not one is called to a literal fulfillment of Jesus' advice to the rich young man. On the one hand, being generous and poor in spirit will liberate our hearts to love and cherish the things of heaven. On the other hand, loving the things of heaven will progressively free us from earthly goods, deepen our dependence upon God and also move us to deeper generosity in loving and serving others. Jesus' advice to the rich young man thus reveals the profound links between the love of God and love of neighbor. The way of perfection in loving God ought to enflame our hearts to a deeper love of neighbor.
When we truly love God, we are free to spread the same love of God to others. There is a divine generosity that moves us to "self-emptying" -- just as Jesus "emptied himself" for our sake (Phil 2:7). When we truly love God, He is our treasure and we are therefore free from attachments to earthly goods. This freedom can be so deep as to move people to sell their goods and give to the poor, in literal fulfillment of Jesus' word to the rich young man. The freedom that Jesus offered the rich young man and every one of us is this freedom to be perfectly generous and poor in spirit for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. Jesus called people into this perfect way of generosity and poverty because he himself lived it. He, who had "no where to lay his head," proclaimed that "the poor in spirit are blessed for theirs is the kingdom of heaven" (Matt 5:3). He, who made himself poor for our sake -- even unto death on the cross -- urged us to "give and it shall be given to you" (Luke 6:38).
Whatever one's calling in life -- wife, husband, student, teacher, laborer, executive, priest or religious -- every Christian is called to enter into the generosity and poverty of the Lord Jesus. This is the royal way that leads to the heart of God the Father, because by generosity and poverty we live the truth that everything we have is a gift to us from the Father. Only by this acknowledgment of our total dependence upon God the Father can we perfectly love Him.
Come and follow me: The call to perfection and the advice to sell one's goods and give to the poor would be of little help without this last part of Jesus' teaching on how to love God. To perfectly love God the Father we need to follow Jesus Christ. He is "the way" to Father (John 14:6). Jesus Christ is the one who opens the gates of heaven for all people, giving humanity a new and continuous access to the Father. It is only in and through Jesus Christ that the Father of mercies is fully revealed. "No one knows the Father but the Son and any one to whom the Son chooses to reveal Him" (Matt 11:27).
To follow the Lord Jesus means both putting our faith in him as our Lord and Savior and actually being his disciples -- walking with him, talking to him and being conformed to him each and every day of our lives. As we follow Jesus the "mysteries" in his own life by which he revealed the Father and His love will touch our own lives. Like Mary, we will experience the joy of hearing and giving birth to God's word in our own lives. Jesus will teach us, heal us and free us from the temptation and oppression of demons. When there are times of trial and suffering in our lives we will be conformed more deeply to Jesus in his passion and death. The old life in us will be crucified with him and we will experience a real share in the power by which he was raised from the dead. From on high, ascended in glory, the Lord Jesus will also direct our eyes and hearts heavenward to the Father of glory. In all these ways, following Jesus Christ enables us to experience the Father's love and His plan to bring all humanity into one under the headship of Jesus Christ.
Above all, "come and follow me" means that we imitate Jesus in his own relationship of love, trust and surrender to God the Father. We love God fully by sharing in Jesus' own prayer to the Father. As we are conformed to Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, we actually share in the inner life of the Trinity -- in the reciprocal relationship of love between the Father and Son. At the Last Supper, Jesus prayed that all his disciples would share in this inner life of the Father and Son within the Trinity:
Who, but Jesus the only Son of God, could lift all human beings heavenward to share in this inner life of God! In this vision of heavenly communion with the Father and Son we see clearly how only Jesus offers humanity the grace to perfectly fulfill the commandment of the love of God. By following Jesus and being conformed to him in a sense we no longer love God simply as creatures loving their Creator. By living in Jesus, our love for God becomes truly a divine love -- the love of one Person in the Trinity for the Other. This is the perfect fulfillment of the commandment to love God. By obedience to this commandment, as St. Peter says, we become "sharers of the divine nature" (2 Pet 1:4).
Christian Morality: A New Way of Life
By listening to the question of the rich young man, "what must I do to enter life?" and by following the ensuing dialogue between him and Jesus, we have entered into the very heart of Christian morality. This new way of life reaches and abides in God the Father. In this "year of the Father," the Church has been called to deeper communion with our heavenly Father in order to receive and abide in His love. If we are to abide in the Father's love, every part of our life must share in this grace and be conformed to the will of the Father. We can only understand and do the will of God the Father as we allow His love to form every thought, word and deed of our lives. This activity is the very heart of Christian morality.
In the dialogue with the rich young man, Jesus reveals the two movements of the Father's love in us. First of all, the Father calls us to obey all the commandments that concern justice and love toward those around us. We cannot continue to live in the Father's love if we are envious, stealing, cheating, lying, committing sexual sins, or tearing down others through anger and bitterness. Jesus therefore confirms the continuing validity of all these commandments and actually deepens their meaning by showing how the commandments are to govern even the thoughts of our heart. The second movement of the Father's love in us is to plunge us into the perfection of His love by conforming us to Jesus Christ, especially in the qualities of Christ's generosity and poverty.
As we live in Christ, we begin to see that the commandments of love of God and love of neighbor are both "old" and "new" in him. They are old, because they are the same commandments given in the Old Testament through Moses. But they are "new" in Christ, because he has fulfilled them in a unique and perfect way. By being disciples of Jesus Christ and being joined to his body, we can share in this definitive fulfillment of the twofold commandment of love. Jesus actually joins us to himself so that we receive the love within the Trinity between the Father and the Son. Through this sharing in divine love our whole lives become oriented toward the Father in a "perfect" way.
This new relationship to the Father is totally dependent upon Jesus and therefore sheer grace, but to "abide" in the Father's love we must cooperate with His grace. By our cooperation with the Father's love, the same love that binds the Father and Son begins to forms all our moral activity—a process that ought to continue and deepen throughout our life. The heart of Christian morality is nothing more than remaining united to Jesus Christ and doing all of our actions (thoughts, words and deeds) consciously in the presence of God the Father and for His honor and glory. This is the perfection and fulfillment of the commandment to love God. The fruit of this love for the Father is that all our actions will also manifest and extend the Father's love to others. In this way there is also a "new" transformation and perfection of our obedience to the commandments concerning the love of neighbor. By our union with Jesus Christ and the Father, the divine love within the Trinity becomes as well the love with which we love others, so that the communion between the Father and Son is offered and extended to all humanity. Thus, as the great Apostle St. Paul says, through the new way of life in Christ, God will become "all in all" (1 Corinthians 15:28).
(Father Gerard Beigel is Associate Pastor at St. Frances Cabrini Church in Littleton, Colorado, and writes regularly for The California Mission.)