Oct 84 min read

Attachment and Detachment

If we do not feel as though a two edged sword has penetrated us to the marrow then maybe we have not heard the gospel! (Mark 10:17-31. Twenty first Sunday after Pentecost. Proper 23 [OT 28] )There is no escaping the challenge to our attachment to our possessions, our status, our roles and relationships, our ideas and preferences, our desires.

You may wish to read what I wrote three years ago.

This is a perfectly balanced and structured story, full of detail and broad brush strokes, of pathos and obstacles, of challenge and compassion, and of invitation to life eternal and abundant.

This story has the shape of student and teacher recognisable in many spiritual traditions. We do not know if this particular rich young man was a student or follower but he approaches Jesus with an awareness of his role as teacher and adopts the posture of one who is respectful and anticipating instruction and wisdom.

But it seems he asks the wrong question for Jesus does not directly answer his question. The young man asks about eternal life but does not seem to be asking about life which may be very different but more years of the same good life he is enjoying now? Maybe this is why Jesus ignores his question and goes to the issue of what and who is good. Indeed this young man is good, and Jesus feels great compassion for him, but the young man does not understand what he needs to learn. So when Jesus tells him to sell all that he has and give it to the poor the young man is grieved and walks away. It seems Jesus is as sad as the young man. So close and yet so far.

Or he is asking an alright question from the wrong perspective? Jesus has just finished teaching that we need to be as little children to see, to enter into, the kingdom. And unlike a child this person presents their desire to succeed at the spiritual life and because of their own righteousness! This is probably how many of us present ourselves to Jesus – on bended knee but counting on our own righteousness and self reliance.

So how are we to hear this story and what is the challenge to us? Well we should be deeply challenged by the literal command to sell and give away our possessions. While not every disciple or follower was asked it is clear from Peter’s conversation with Jesus that the disciples did let go of fields and homes and family for the sake of the gospel and indeed many would give their very lives. And the good news of the gospel should be good news for the poor and marginalised and therefore those of us who come to the gospel with fields and homes need to consider that we are to commit to the journey with all that we have and all that we are.

But this story is not only about our material possessions. Rather I think it is about our attachment to our material possessions, our status, our roles and relationships, our ideas and preferences, our desires! I think this story challenges all that we rely upon, which can include the familiarity of our problems and failures as well as our success and wealth.

If you have ever tried to let go of your desires you will know how hard that is and how unsettling. Why? Richard Rohr suggests that is because our desires are so persistent that we tend to think we are our desires and that shows how attached to them we are! “None of us escape our desire, and we don’t want to escape. That is not the point. We would just like to stop holding them for dear life!” And it seems that is where the young man is at – holding on to the familiar for dear life.

Father Richard goes on to say: “All great spirituality is about letting go. [but] instead we have made it about taking in, attaining, performing, winning, and succeeding. True spiritually echoes the paradox of life itself. It trains us in both detachment and attachment: detachment from the passing [the transitory] so we can attach to the substantial [the eternal].”

Jesus is asking the young man, for whom he feels great love, to let go of his material possessions so that he will be free to receive the substantial, the eternal, the truly abundant life. And yes, so the poor, the little, the last, can be included in joy and plenty now! The same action of letting go would free the rich young man and his poor neighbours because we are all connected and our present wellbeing and our future are all bound up in each others. Only in an economy, or household, of grace and gift can we all thrive.

Again and again we are being challenged by Jesus that we invited, called, made for a bigger and broader belonging than what we easily see or even imagine. The kingdom is near but oh so much bigger, deeper, more inclusive, more abundant than our small possessions and certainties can imagine.

Even so, come Lord Jesus the Christ, come call us into your abundant presence and grant us courage to follow empty handed.