28th Sunday in Ordinary Time

An enthusiastic young man comes to Jesus in our Gospel asking what he must do to inherit eternal life.  Having followed all the commandments from his youth, Jesus invites the young man to take a step in faith…but this young man is very wealthy.  At Jesus’ challenge to sell what he owns and follow Jesus alone, this good young man walks away – he isn’t willing to put something in his life down to take hold of Jesus.  We only have two hands, and this weekend Jesus is stretching out his hand asking us to take hold and be raised to another level of our relationship with him.  But we only have two hands, and keeping hold of Jesus often involves putting something else down in life – even good things.  We’ve only got two hands: what are you holding onto?