What’s The One Thing That Could Change Everything?

Acknowledging his penchant for badly mangling the English language, the late Hall of Famer Yogi Berra famously titled one of his books When You Come to a Fork in the Road, Take It!

While obviously meant to be humorous, on some level it may also call to mind our (sometimes unconscious) desire to postpone major decision making – perhaps in a vain attempt to try and have it all.

And while Robert Frost’s perhaps most famous poem, The Road Not Taken, is anything but humorous, we are given just a little insight into Frost’s thinking about the power and the lasting impact of choice when we stumble upon this exact same spot – the spot, that is, where two roads diverge:

I took the one less traveled by,

And that has made all the difference

As I look back at some of the earliest decisions that I’ve made, I could not have possibly foreseen how some – even some very trivial ones – would ultimately change and shape my life.

I think back, particularly, at the last minute decision to send my resume to a big-time, powerful, New York City law firm after scouring all too many local resources for a job in upstate New York. That last-minute decision somehow ensured that my resume landed on the desk of a partner who had, some years earlier, graduated from my school.

In short order, I got the job where I then met my future wife, moved back to New York, started our family, and, several years later, through my wife’s direct connection, ended up at my current law firm – where I’ve been for the past 22 years and counting. And all that directly connected to one small, last-minute decision made during law school.

Or just last year, stumbling across Douglas, a street person with a story so compelling that I had no choice but to commit it to paper. Douglas’ story soon landed me here, at Patheos, which has led directly to, among other things, a televised SiriusXM radio interview with His Eminence, Timothy Cardinal Dolan this past June.

That still amazes me to no end, for I had nothing but contempt for the Church for the 41 years prior to my 2013 reversion. But there I sat, just two years later, publicly sharing my personal story with one of the Church’s most prominent and influential leaders. I recognize that I’m walking towards a destination that, in many respects, is still unfolding before me.

This brings me to you.

And to today’s reading of the rich young man.

It’s a story familiar to most of us.

The man – we refer to him as young only because the text says that he ran to Christ – wanted to know what he needed still to do in order to inherit eternal life.

Christ answers him succinctly with what is the minimum that we are all called to do:

You know the commandments: You shall not murder; You shall not commit adultery; You shall not steal; You shall not bear false witness; You shall not defraud; Honor your father and mother.

The young man replies that I have kept all these since my youth.

Now here is where the road diverges for this young man, where he confronts the fork in the road on his own journey of unfolding faith:

Jesus, looking at him, loved him and said, “You lack one thing; go, sell what you own, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.

When he heard this, he was shocked and went away grieving, for he had many possessions.

As Bishop Robert Barron today mentioned in his broadcast about this passage, you might analogize the young man’s story to his having asked his doctor two different things: what do I need to do, at a minimum, to stay healthy? (answer: don’t smoke, get regular exercise), versus how do I condition myself to be able to run in a marathon? (answer: a highly regimented training program). The young man is, perhaps, healthy, but is he ready for the marathon to come? Very likely not.

Now before I move on, let me make two brief, and somewhat obvious, points about the text.

First, this is not a call to everyone to sell everything, and give all of the proceeds to the poor. Christ knew what was holding this particular young man back – or perhaps more precisely, what had taken hold of him: his love of money, an unhealthy attachment to his possessions. Christ zeroed in on the very thing from which this man needed to detach so that he could grow, or run that marathon, unburdened by earthly stuff.

Each of us has something particular holding us back. It may be money, but could well be something else.

Second, note Christ’s emotional state just before He answered the man: Jesus, looking at him, loved him.

He understood the difficulty for this man of what he was about to propose; and He likely already knew how the man would respond.

And yet, He loved him anyway.

Our celebrant posed exactly the right question today.

It’s a question with no universal answer. It’s question personal to each and every one of us.

If you were that man, running up to and kneeling before Christ, standing at the very spot where the road before you clearly diverged, what do you suspect would be the one thing that He would ask you to do, or to change, or to give up, or to be? 

What’s the one thing that could change everything in your life going forward?

But you already know there’s an even more critical question:

How would you respond? If today, you were to find yourself at that fork in the road, in which direction would you head?

That’s something that I’ve felt compelled to think about today.

But I’m not yet certain of my answers.

Peace

Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons