St. James' Camino Spring 2018 | Page 2

FROM THE EDITOR As the story goes, the rich man knew all the right answers. He wanted to know from Jesus what he must do to inherit eternal life, and he ran up to the Good Teacher and knelt before him. The rich man had always done right, ever since his youth, and he told Jesus as much. For most Christians, it’s a familiar story. But it’s also a deceptively mysterious exchange. What was it, exactly, that had him running to meet Jesus on the road? What had he hoped Jesus would tell him? What had he been prepared to do? These things, we don’t know. What we do know is that before venturing any answer at all, Jesus looked at him and loved him. God calls us each individually into personal relationship with him, based on his knowledge of us and of our need and circumstance. In this man’s case, Jesus’ counsel was to sell what he owned and give the money to the poor. It makes for a somewhat uncomfortable parable. I wonder sometimes about the rich man’s grief and shock, about his going away and his many possessions. I wonder, too, about the disciples’ response to the incident. “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God,” Jesus tells them. And they are “astounded” by this! They say to For inside one another, “Then who can be saved?” As though bank vaults everyone were rich, or everyone was a camel, or as inside every challenge our faith poses were as difficult as moving through the eye of a needle. sealed tombs, Perhaps it’s comforting that the disciples God is alive. were as confused as we sometimes are by what to make of wealth as people of faith. That we live in an economic and material world, that we are confronted by needs as well as wants, is as much the reality of our faith landscape today as it was in Jesus’ day. What we set out to do in this issue was to offer financial formation. To tackle the questions Scripture poses to us about our material lives. What we hadn’t planned on was the encounter we would make with stories of incarnation, resurrection, and new life. The stories and resources you’ll find in this issue were courageously offered, and I pray you might courageously encounter them — for inside bank vaults as inside sealed tombs, God is alive. Feast on the wisdom; if anything raises questions for you, ask a priest or parishioner to coffee. And if it recalls something of your own experience, please share it with us. Buen camino, peregrino. Chris Veillon, Editor Cover: The Anointing of Christ, Julia Stankova (2009). Used by permission of the artist.