General Audience: English Summary

Dear brothers and sisters: Today we begin a new series of catecheses dealing with the commandments. In the Gospel passage we heard earlier, a young man asks Jesus: “What must I do to inherit eternal life?”. His question expresses the universal desire, felt especially by young people, to live a full and authentic existence and not to settle for a life of bland mediocrity. Jesus first tells the young man to follow the commandments, but then points beyond them to something “greater”, something that is still lacking. He invites the young man, who has obeyed the commandments from childhood, to sell what he has, give to the poor and follow him, promising that in this way he will have “treasure in heaven” (Mk 10:21). Here we see the meaning of Jesus’ saying that he came, “not to abolish the Law but to fulfil it”. The Lord wishes to give us that something greater, the treasure of life in abundance. In coming weeks, we will reflect on how the Law finds its fulfilment in the new life of grace. In the Ten Commandments, read in the light of Christ, we will find a door through which we can follow Jesus to the fullness of life: his own life and our life as God’s children.