A reading of the holy gospel according to Matthew. A man came up to Jesus and said to him, teacher, what must I do to possess everlasting life? Jesus answered, why do you question me about what is good? There is only one who is good. If you wish to enter into life, keep the commandments.
The man asked, which ones? And Christ replied, you shall not kill. You shall not commit adultery. You shall not steal. You shall not bear false witness.
Honor your father and your mother. Love your neighbor as yourself. The young man said to Jesus, I have kept all of these. What do I need to do further? Jesus said, if you seek perfection, perfection, go sell your possessions and give to the poor.
You will then have treasure in heaven. Afterward, come back and follow me. Hearing these words, the young man went away sad, for his possessions were many. Jesus then said to his disciples, I assure you, only with difficulty will a rich man enter into the kingdom of God. I repeat what I said.
It is easier for a camel to pass through a needle's eye than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God. When the disciples heard this, they were completely overwhelmed and exclaimed, if this be so, then who can be saved? And Jesus looked at them and said, for man, it is impossible, but for God, all things are possible. And this is the gospel of the Lord. In the name of the father and of the son and of the holy spirit.
Amen. Saint Anthony, this is the Saint Anthony of Egypt, not a Padre. The founder of Monastasis. He died about 03/1950 at the tender age of about 100. Now that takes us back quite a little way.
He comes from Egypt. He also lived and had his being around the Red Sea. But one year after his death, his great and good friend, Saint Athanasius, wrote his biography. And that biography has been known all down the centuries. So we're not dealing here with a myth.
We are not dealing here with the creation of someone's fertile imagination. We're on very solid rock when today we pay tribute to this ancient founder of monasticism. There is a gross misunderstanding misunderstanding about what is called a life of perfection. It's very easy to confuse an ideal called the life of perfection with living the Christian life perfectly. The two are far from being synonyms, far from it.
Generally, we think of the so called life of perfection. It really should be written in quotation marks because it's kind of a professional term, technical term. It means someone who in a very special, extraordinary way commits themselves to following Christ. And traditionally, that has been by taking vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience. Because these three vows by which these objects are renounced fairly well incorporate the three most basic basic drives of any human being.
Now, as Saint Thomas Aquinas has pointed out, there's no difficulty in saying, in saying that one who espouses a life where they reject their own will, where they reject actually having possessions, where they reject the normal and natural aspirations of a human being to procreate and continue the race, that this does put a person in a higher echelon of perfection. It puts him in the way of it. But that's far from saying that having accepted that kind of a life in theory that we live it actually, any more than when a Christian accepts their very the basic Christian life, that that automatically means that we live it perfectly. Years and years ago, a long time ago, I hadn't been ordained, when I read a book by Von Hildebrand called In Defense of Purity. It is still an excellent book by Von Hildebrand.
Now there's one thing that man said in there that struck me between the eyes. Remember, I hadn't been ordained. And he says in there that men and women who take and of poverty, chastity, obedience can become the most selfish persons in the world unless they have an overriding love of God. And it when you that struck me as being almost ridiculous. But when you think about it a bit, you will see how true it is.
You take a a young man and woman who marry, who produce a family, whether they like it or not, ordinarily and normally, the great percentage will do their best to take care of their children. They may not like it, they may resent it, but they'll do it. In other words, there is a compulsion, a very natural compulsion, based upon this young couple to do what they might not naturally do, that is renounce themselves. To give to their children rather than to take for themselves. And we all know how true this is of parents.
Believe me. Believe me. Even the worst of parents do it. Whereas you take a person who's committed to religion, once they're accepted, when a man is accepted by his ordinary or a man or a woman is accepted into a religious order, they have it made. They don't need to worry about where they're going to get their next meal or where their shoes are going to come from.
When they need something, they make they go or they used to and indicate their need, and generally speaking, it was it was granted. It it was a reasonable request. And you can easily see how that kind of a life, without that those external compulsions which force us to present reject ourselves, when that is missing and the love of God isn't there, what do you have? And that's what von Hildebrand said you do have. You can have the most selfish person on God's earth.
What I'm saying saying is this. It's this idea of talking about a life of perfection is very misleading. What counts is this, and Aquinas brings this out. What counts isn't not the life we espouse, it's the life we live. That's what matters.
Yesterday, we had that fine phrase from the mass, here am I, lord. Here am I. And what counts is what am I doing with this here and the now. It's not enough for me to say, Lord, Lord. It's not enough for me to say, I love you.
I give myself to you entirely. All this is so easily done, and we feel so good about it. What what matters most is what we do with the nitty gritty demands of daily living according to our calling. According to our calling. Each one of us has that vocation.
And the when all is said and done, as we say today, the bottom line is not that perfection that we espoused in theory and in some idealistic moment or a moment of spiritual glow. What matters is, how am I living living for God, the very here and the now? What This is what matters. And as someone said, what matters most is how we answer this very great question. How are you living to fulfill your vocation, your calling to be a saint?
In the name of the father and of the son and the holy spirit. Amen.