What is Your "One Thing?"

What is Your “One Thing”. 

In today’s Gospel we encounter a young man who comes to Jesus and wants to know “what more” can he do. He’s been obedient and faithful; he’s kept all the commandments since he was a child. He’s been successful in life and he has “many possessions.” He’s got power, position, prestige and wealth. He’s done something with his life. And yet, he knows something is missing. He wants to know, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” It’s not a question about getting to heaven. It’s about meaning. It’s about being, it’s about a quality of life. He’s searching for something more. 

He’s right in asking the question but he’s asking the wrong question. He wants to know what he must do, as if the life he wants is something to be acquired, possessed, and gained by hard work. I get it. He’s seeking the missing piece of his life by the only means he knows. But the life he wants, the life I want, the life I think you want, is not about doing and achieving, it’s about being and meaning. It’s not outside us, it’s already within us.  

I wonder if we’ve confused meaning and purpose. Is the meaning of your life and my life only what we’ve accomplished? Most obituaries would say yes. We tend to mark and measure our lives by what we’ve done, but is that really the sum of who you and I are? Don’t you want to be more than what you’ve done? I do. I want my life to matter not because of what I do but because of who I am. And I wonder if that’s why the man in today’s gospel goes to Jesus with his question.  

It’s ironic that Jesus says to this very rich man who has “many possessions, “You lack one thing.” What is this “one thing?” 

Holy Scripture speaks of the “one thing” in several places: 

Psalm 27 says, “One thing I have asked of the Lord, this is what I seek: to live in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to dwell in his temple” Maybe the “one thing” is to be connected to something bigger and beyond ourselves, to know ourselves and our lives to be more than what we do or have, to recognize and trust that there is something transcendent about each one of us. 

In the Gospel of Luke where Jesus is visiting Martha, Mary and Lazarus, Marha is busy doing many things and Jesus tells her  “only one thing is necessary”. Martha was worried and distracted by many things. Her life was divided. She was here and there but not really anywhere. Maybe the “one thing”  is to learn how to be fully present in the now moment. 

In the Gospel of John, the religious authorities questioned the man blind from birth whom Jesus had healed and the man said, “One thing I know, that though I was blind, now I see”. Maybe the “one thing” is to see with new eyes, gaining a deeper insight, living with a new level of consciousness, and to be fully awake to the life before us. 

St. Paul says that when he and Barnabas and Titus met the leadership in Jerusalem, they asked only one thing, that we “remember the poor” . Maybe the “one thing” is compassion, caring for each other, and recognizing that our lives are one body in Christ. 

In his letter to the Philippians  Paul writes, “This one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead”. Maybe the “one thing” is staying open to the future, listening for the call on our life, remembering that our lives are always in process, and trusting that no one moment, story, or event defines us.   

Maybe the one thing common in all these one things is finding and living from a place of deep meaning. We all have “peak experiences” when something touches, resonates with, or speaks to us; when we feel fully alive, fully present in the moment, and connected to everyone. When we feel a part of the bigger picture. In such a moment, we feel we are home. These are life-changing, life-defining experiences. 

They are those moments you can’t let go of because they won’t let go of you. And the thing about the “one thing” is that your “one thing” and my “one thing” are probably two different things. They are unique to each of us. 

What if you were the person in today’s gospel? What if Jesus said to you, “You lack one thing?” How would you respond? 

What is the “one thing” you lack?