Thought for the Evening

Folks,

In today's Daily Scripture reading, the Gospel reading from Mark 10:17-27 recounts the story of the rich man who came to Jesus to ask what he had to do to inherit eternal life, and Jesus responded with the Commandments. The man declared that he had kept these all his life, but Jesus, looking upon him, loved him and said he lacked one thing: he had to sell his possessions and give the proceeds to the poor, not that the poor might be helped, but that the young man's idol - his attachment to the material thing he loved most that was keeping him from God - would be broken. The man went away sorrowful, having many possessions.

Now it is rare that I should ever quote a Zen Buddhist story to illustrate the point of detachment from our idols; however, from my early days in 12 step programs, this one story keeps coming back to me for here we have a man - a Zen Buddhist monk - from 17th century Japan for whom even reputation among the people of this world meant nothing. He simply did the right thing. To be sure, there are plenty of Catholic Saints whose lives exemplify this perhaps even better, but please let the story speak for itself:

Hakuin was greatly respected and had many disciples. At one time in his life, he lived in a village hermitage, close to a food shop run by a couple and their beautiful, young daughter. One day the parents discovered that their daughter was pregnant. Angry and distraught, they demanded to know the name of the father. At first, the girl would not confess but after much harassment, she named Hakuin. The furious parents confronted Hakuin, berating him in front of all of his students. He simply replied, “Is that so?”

When the baby was born, the family gave it to Hakuin. By this time, he had lost his reputation and his disciples left him. But Hakuin was not disturbed. He took delight in caring for the infant child; he was able to obtain milk and other essentials from the villagers. A year later, the young mother of the child was troubled by great remorse. She confessed the truth to her parents - the real father was not Hakuin but rather a young man who worked at the local fish market. The mortified parents went to Hakuin, apologizing, asking his forgiveness for the wrong they did him. They asked Hakuin to return the baby. Although he loved the child as his own, Hakuin was willing to give him up without complaint. All he said was: “Is that so?”

Today's world may seem to be falling apart. But in the midst of all the turmoil, will we walk away from Jesus like the rich man because we have many possessions and much reputation, and preserving them against the oncoming catastrophe is more important than Him? Or will we be like Hakuin and simply put one foot in front of the other, doing the right thing one day at a time and leaving to God the working of the results without our attachment to either material possessions or reputation in society? Now true, we can argue about the legitimacy of Zen Buddhism (no, I haven't gone over to the dark side of paganism). That's not the point. The point is - who's on first? Jesus or me? I'd rather be like Hakuin than the rich man. But that's awefully hard to do.