Today the Gospel tells us what to do to gain eternal life. And the answer is reasonably straightforward. A man asks Jesus what to do to be successful: how to inherit eternal life. Jesus says to follow the right path: to obey the commandments, all of them. Don’t kill, or steal, or lie, or cheat. And the man says he is already doing that, and has all his life. He is a fine man and treats others fairly and decently, like he is supposed to. Jesus says the next step is to sell his possessions, give to the poor, and follow Jesus. Then the man went away sad, for he had many possessions. And Jesus is sad that this man could not take that final step. He says "How hard it is for those who have wealth to enter the Kingdom of God!"

This all happened a long time ago, but the foundation is there and has not changed. The path to eternal life is still to treat others decently and fairly, to be charitable, caring, and compassionate. But in our contemporary culture that does not seem to be the idea of success. Today greed and cruelty are normalized and encouraged. Compassion and charity are not only discouraged but made illegal. Someone today might not see this path as the means to success. And someone today might not even be legally able to treat others fairly or to be compassionate and charitable. And it is sad.

The goal has not changed, and the path has not changed. Treating each other respectfully and charitably is still the way to eternal life. Greed and cruelty does not lead to the Kingdom of God. But it is harder now to find and follow that path, or maybe even to recognize that it is the means to success