The young man, who apparently was a good soul, had forgotten the first three tenets of the
law. For our Lord, when he lists the commandments, lists all those from the fourth commandment on
down, which the young man says that he was keeping. And so, our Lord points out that the precept of
charity is not merely that we must love our neighbors, but we must first of all love God
above all things. Indeed, if we were to seek a modern thought that would be in most conformity
with the thought of the young man, it would be the thinking of Freemasonry, which promises
happiness in this life and a sort of form of virtue, to which St. Augustine would reply,
the virtues of the pagans are nothing but beautiful vices. And so, if we are to truly
work out our salvation, it is not merely loving our neighbor that is necessary, but to love God
above all things. And so, we must be willing to walk away from the thought of charity,
away from the things of this world and the pleasures of this world. Indeed, when we look
deep into the addictions of our modern society, we realize that people are pursuing things that
cannot bring them happiness. That is ultimately why addiction to the things of this life only
bring us down to the state of despair. For God has created us in such a way that there is nothing
in this world or in this life that can satisfy the longing of our hearts. And so, if we are to
be happy, we must be happy in the heart of our hearts. For once the human soul is created,
that longing for happiness cannot be satiated by any created entity. It can only be satiated
by union with God for all eternity in heaven. And so, God has deliberately made it so that there is
nothing in this life that can bring us the happiness we see. The young man, when he was
confronted with this choice, would turn from the Lord. And contrary to popular practice,
opinion, while we can't say definitively, there is no account either in scripture or in the works
of the early doctors and fathers of the church that indicate the young man came back. He simply
walked away sad, not necessarily a bad man, but one who apparently did not return to the Lord.
And so, we see very clearly that principle of St. Maximilian Mary Colby at play, that many souls
souls lose their eternal salvation, not because of their malice, but because of their weakness.
And so let us pray not to exhibit the weakness of the young man. Let us strive to love our neighbor
and perform those works of charity. But let us also remember that the Lord clearly said
that the poor will always be with us. It is a common trick of modern philosophy
to get people focusing on their injustice towards the poor, and so spend so much energy
in trying to relieve the misery of the poor, which in and of itself is a good thing.
But as in all things, there can be one thing lacking. We must do such works,
motivated out of love of God above all things, so that when the things of this world,
even the good things of this world, are taken away from us,
we do not rebel against the good God from whom we have come, but we accept from him
the good things and the bad things in this life, because we always keep our mind and our heart
focused on the love of God, and from that love, true love of our neighbor flows.
And indeed, no Christian loves his neighbor more than when he is willing to stand up
and to defend the prerogatives of Christ above all things,
even if he is not willing to stand up and to defend the prerogatives of Christ
even if he is not willing to stand up and to defend the prerogatives of Christ above all things,
even if he is not willing to stand up and to defend the prerogatives of Christ above all things,
he would deliver to them that which he has promised if they persevere through the trials
and the tribulations of this life then they will join him for all eternity in the life to come and
so let us strive to overcome especially by a good example those errors of our modern society
most particularly those souls who are addicted to the two common vices in our modern society or
rather there are three but indeed two of them simply lead to the other that is greed and lust
and that addiction which is most common in our life power and each one of those vices can be
linked to a quest for power in this life rather than for that virtue of humility which was lacking
in the young man even though he seemed to exercise natural virtues
the lord came to call him to a higher ideal to a higher state and as far as we know he never
returned he simply walked back to the things of this life and probably even continued to do good
work but he had missed the time of his visitation and we can only hope and pray that even though
there is no recorded account of his return that at some point he came back to the lord and so
let us strive always to labor in this life
for our salvation in the salvation of souls by recognizing jesus was the good teacher and
following all that he said and all that he did rather than what we are being told by a modern
culture in a modern society that will have nothing to do with the good teacher and hence has nothing
to do with christ the good king who came in order to protect us in this life in order that we may
enjoy him for all eternity
in the life to come
is