The Archbishop of Arequipa (Peru) explains the path to happiness and eternal life with God, in a reflection on this Sunday’s gospel about the rich young man.
In an article titled The path of happinesssent to ACI Prensa, Bishop Javier del Río Alba recalls the passage from Mark 10:17-30, in which the rich young man asks Jesus what to do to have eternal life.
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The Lord reminds the young man that he must fulfill the commandments, something that the boy already does, but tells him that “that is not enough but something else is needed”: that he sell everything and give the money to the poor, after which He leaves saddened because he had many possessions.
With this, the Peruvian prelate explains, “Jesus reveals to us that the way to have eternal life does not consist in trying to ingratiate ourselves with God through the mere compliance of certain norms in a legalistic way, but in trusting in Him.”
It is then necessary to “believe that only He and not our wealth – be it material goods, affection, prestige, etc. – can guarantee us a happy existence and eternal life.”
Bishop Del Río then specifies that Jesus “does not say that it is wrong to have material goods, affectionate relationships with other people or want to get ahead in our job or profession. That was not the problem of that rich man that the gospel tells us about.”
His problem, he continues, “was that he put that above God who, through Jesus, called him to something greater: to live with Him, to participate in His divine life.”
“It is a risk that we all have: seeking happiness – which to be true must be full – in things, personal relationships or events that, in themselves, do not have the capacity to give it to us, and in confusing the means with the end for the that God has created them.”
In the gospel the Lord reminds us that nothing is impossible for God. “With these simple words – highlights the archbishop – Jesus gives us the key. It tells us that eternal life, which is true happiness (…) is not a task possible for man’s strength alone, but is a free gift that God gives to those who trust in Him and put their life in His hands.
This, the prelate emphasizes, does not occur “as if it were a commercial relationship (I give you so that you can give me) but in a relationship of love that cannot be bought even with our good works.”
Walter Sánchez Silva
I have been a husband since 2008. My wife and I have three children here and one who went to heaven in 2023, before he was born. Since I joined ACI Prensa in 2005, I have had the opportunity to cover various events of the Catholic Church. Among them, the World Youth Days in Cologne, Madrid and Rio de Janeiro and the apostolic trips of Pope Benedict XVI to Mexico and of Pope Francis to South Korea. I have been sent to the Vatican to cover the Family synods, in 2015; of the Amazon, in 2019 and that of Synodality, in 2023. I closely follow the situation of the Catholic Church in Nicaragua, which suffers persecution from the dictatorship of Daniel Ortega, as well as current ecclesiastical events in the region.