By Yousif Alkateb
“Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” (Mark 10:17)
Today's Gospel reminds us to think and reconsider our actions. What do we do today to inherit eternal life? In light of the pressures and problems we face today, where are we in relation to the words of Christ and His commandments? We often misinterpret the words of Christ. Christ does not call us to give up our lives, our families, or even our friends. All that Christ wants from us is our hearts, our will (that our will be His will). My wish is that we accept God's will with joy, not with force, and say with St Paul: "All things work together for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose" (Romans 8:28). In simplicity of heart, not in complexities of thought, we accept God's will in our lives, with all faith, trust, and submission, and say with Our Lady "Let it be done to me according to your word" (Luke 1:38).
He calls us to love Him, to live according to His commandments, what He taught us. Christ calls us to be His own people. Out of His love for us, He calls us to go to Him with our weaknesses, with our sins, with our brokenness. We go to Him with hope, optimism, and love. We go to Him silently, with our helplessness, and we kneel before Him and ask Him to show us the way to His kingdom. Imagine when you go to Him with your helplessness and your brokenness, and He receives you, embraces you, and places you in His heart because you are a piece of His heart, because He loves you and knows your weakness.
As seminarians, Christ did not call us to leave or abandon our lives, our homes, our families, or even our friends. On the contrary, Christ calls us as we are, with our weaknesses, our pains, and our sins. He calls us as we are and transfigures us through His grace
This passage also reminds me of what happened to us in Iraq, where we left everything behind us for the sake of our faith and to preserve our Christian identity. We faced persecution, killing, forced displacement, and the most heinous crimes were committed against us. Yes, we were forced to leave everything we owned behind us, but we remained steadfast in our faith and carried our cross with pride, honour, and love, because we are God’s children. This is what He taught us, to forgive and carry our cross in silence and follow Him, and so that we don’t forget that Christ carried this cross for us when the people of Galilee rejected Jesus and expelled Him from the city. We won by the power of the cross, not by weapons. So, what we need to do is honestly accept the circumstances of our lives, to accept that we are weak and that it is only through Christ that we can be saved.