trust-in-jesus – Spiritual Stepping Stones

“Can a blind person guide a blind person? Will not both fall into a pit” (Lk 6:39)?

This phrase from today’s Gospel appears to be one of Jesus’ simple teachings. It seems to be straightforward, practical and makes sense. Yet, as with much of what Jesus teaches, there is a deeper level. There are many degrees of spiritual blindness that we can succumb to. We can follow others, thinking we are improving, yet allowing them to lead us to fall into a pit or off a cliff.

Succumbing to a cult of personality is very tempting. Who are our models, our heroes? Who is it that we seek to emulate? Are they people who are seeking all that is good, true, and beautiful? Are they people who are guiding us to our highest hope and good to actualize our potential, or do they constantly lead us astray?

We need people in our lives that are not afraid to tell us the truth, or who respect us enough to guide us in such a way that they do not manipulate and take advantage of our blind spots but instead, help reveal to us our shortsightedness and give us the light to see clearer to avoid the pitfalls. Any person we place on a pedestal is dangerous because they are imperfect and finite, sooner or later they will fall or not live up to our expectations. The one who we can trust is Jesus.

We can do so because Jesus is more than just a man, he is the God man, the Christ the Son of the Living God who became one with us in our humanity so that we can become one with him in his divinity. How can we follow a dead man? We can do so because he rose from the dead, he conquered death and became the first born of the new creation.

When we read the Gospel accounts prayerfully by inviting the Holy Spirit to guide us, we can enter into the biblical scenes. As we read, meditate and pray with them, we can also as St. Ignatius of Loyola taught, apply our senses. We just watch and listen, smell, taste, and feel what is happening around us. This can be done even with lines of scripture that are not narrative.

I remember at the beginning of my thirty-day retreat reading from Paul’s letter to the Ephesians. As I slowed my breath, I read this verse a few times: “To know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with the fullness of God” (Ephesians 3:19). I then imagined Jesus sitting next to me on the bench. I hesitated for a moment and then asked him, “How can I know your love?”

Jesus said, “Trust me.”

Trust him I did and because I did, for the remaining days of the retreat, as I walked with him through the Old and New Testaments, I experienced forgiveness, healing, joy, and transformation. We need to discern wisely who we are to follow. Jesus will light the path leading to our freedom when we are willing to trust him, follow his teachings, and put them into practice.

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Photo: Continue to trust in and follow Jesus.

Link for the Mass readings for Friday, September 12, 2025

A man approached Jesus seeking to know what he must, “do to inherit eternal life” (Mk 10:17). Jesus shared that following the commandments, such as: do not kill, commit adultery, steal or bear false witness; do not defraud, but do honor his father and mother (cf. Mk 10:19), would be a good place to start. The man affirmed that he had followed them all. I can imagine the eyebrows of Jesus raise and his mouth curl into a smile as he realized the sincerity of the man kneeling before him. The disciples recognized that look and held their breath.

Jesus, looking at him, loved him and said, “You are lacking one thing. Go, sell what you have, and give to [the] poor and you will have treasure in heaven; then come and follow me” (Mk 10:21).

The man, instead of overjoyed, was crushed. He had followed the prescriptions of Torah all his life, he was blessed by God with the gift of having many material goods, but in the end it was those possessions that enslaved him. He genuinely came seeking eternal life, and Jesus gave him just what he sought, and more. As Jesus called the twelve, he made the same offer to this man when he said, “come and follow me.”

The commandments are a good first step for properly ordering our lives toward God and one another. Jesus quotes overtly from the Ten Commandments as well as adds another one from Deuteronomy 24:24 in asking him not to defraud. These commandments are from the second tablet of seven regarding how we are to relate to one another. Jesus then calling him to sell what he had and to give the proceeds to the poor and follow him, was a covert invitation to put into practice the first tablet of loving God first and foremost before anyone and anything.

The Ten Commandments are the foundational stones that we are to build our discipleship on if we want to be faithful to God and to be freed from that which enslaves us. We are to put God first and when we do so all of our thoughts, words, actions, and relationships will then be properly ordered. This is what we all have been created for, as St. Augustine came to realize and expressed in the introduction of his Confessions: “You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you”.

The man in today’s Gospel account knew what he needed to do, but was too attached to his wealth and material things to let them go. He walked away sad, because he clung to the false substitute of wealth that would not ultimately satisfy him. He placed his security and trust in wealth not in God as he had thought he had done. He like Peter saw the promise in Jesus, but unlike Peter, turned away from the One who offered him eternal life. Jesus invited him to become one of his disciples and to walk with him on the path of love, to give, share, and serve along side him, but he could not bring himself to do it. How about us?

Return to this scene in Mark 10:17-31, make the Sign of the Cross, then breathe slowly in for the count of five and out for the count of five, once for the Father, once for the Son, and once for the Holy Spirit. Read each of the words of this passage slowly, two or three times. Then set your Bible aside. Next, visualize each of the details of this account of Jesus and the rich man and place yourself in this scene. As the narrative comes to an end, and as the rich man walks away with his head bowed, see the disciples turn to face you.

You receive their looks of curiosity. Your head turns and you meet the gaze of Jesus. You feel his invitation without a word spoken between you. Like the man, you ask, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?”

Jesus holds your eyes in his. He loves you as he speaks, “You are lacking one thing…” What does Jesus say next? Allow the love and light of Jesus to touch your mind, heart, and soul. Allow him to reveal to you that which you are holding onto too tightly, that which you are attached to and need to renounce and/or release, to be healed from. What is preventing you from giving yourself completely to Jesus? You may not have an answer now. This may be a meditation that you would like to carry with you into Lent. In this moment, are you willing to resist walking away? Will you instead trust in Jesus and walk with him one step at a time and see what happens next?
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Painting: “Christ and the Rich Young Ruler”, 1889, by Heinrich Hofmann

Link for the Mass readings for Monday, March 3, 2025