Get on board! Take part!

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This imperative sounds like an advertisement for a group outing. It could also be a friend encouraging someone who is hesitant. He doesn't want his friend to stand on the sidelines, to remain a spectator. He wants him to participate – to be right in the middle of things.

In these days at the beginning of Lent, I hear more. Because I also hear it as an invitation from Jesus. And I don't want to dismiss it too quickly, but rather pause, be mindful and reflect on it.

When I hear this as his call, I think of a man in the Bible who could be a person of our time. He wants to do everything right and be on the safe side in every relationship. He knows what he has to do towards his fellow human beings, he sticks to the rules, he seems to have everything under control, and now he wants to achieve the same for eternal life:

And going forth on His journey, one having run up and having knelt down to Him, was asking Him, “Good Teacher, what shall I do that I might inherit eternal life?”

And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call Me good? No one is good, except God alone. You know the commandments: ‘You shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not bear false witness, you shall not defraud, you shall honor your father and mother.’

And he was saying to Him, “Teacher, all these I have kept from my youth.”

And Jesus, having looked upon him, loved him and said to him, “One thing to you is lacking: Go, sell as much as you have, and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.”

And having been sad at the word, he went away grieving; for he was one having many possessions.  (Mk 10, 17-22)

Jesus invites him to abandon his survival strategies and enter into real life. For true life is not something he can possess, but something he must participate in.

Are we familiar with this? Our focus is usually on living well, and by that we largely mean living securely in the sense of being safe and predictable. It means having enough on the safe side to satisfy our needs and desires and to be able to deal with uncertainties without any problems. In doing so, we become more than satisfied, have more clothes than we need, often have more living space than necessary and like to travel more than is good for us and the environment. We also often jealously guard relationships, friendships and affiliations as if they were possessions. We run the risk of treating eternal life in the same way as the man who questioned Jesus: »If I do everything right, it belongs to me!«

So what does Jesus desire for us? He entices us to enter into true life now, instead of managing our possessions. He invites us to enter into real life today, even if the ground seems uncertain. He sees so much unlived potential in us. He wants to make us eager to no longer hold on fearfully, but to discover new things with wonder where we would never have expected them. We would dare to try new things, notice new companions, revitalise familiar relationships, learn to trust, find friendship and love that do not belong to us, but which we shape together and in which we live. We could join in the dance of life. Dancing is a wonderful image for life. When I dance, I move to a rhythm that I have found. The more I practise, the more I enjoy dancing. I glide along and can enjoy it. Others dance with me and everyone is important. There are fast passages and slow ones, turns, jumps and sometimes falls. Sometimes the others pull us along, sometimes we help someone up. The dance only lives when we continue to dance. We do not own it, we participate in it.

Jesus lovingly invites the man to do so. He urges him: »Get on board and take part in life! Let go of your possessions, of your attitude of having! Then others can live and you will finally be free to live too. You will get a glimpse of true life, which remains. You will discover the treasure within you that is eternal.«

I see the man with slumped shoulders and a pale face returning to his world. I sense his sadness and his inner justifications.

But it doesn't have to be that way, neither for him, nor for us:

»When a hand reaches out to you for a new beginning, when you yourself dare to make a new start, when its power allows you to suddenly leap over walls, as if they were no longer there, when you find a new gesture of hope, a new word that sings of life« *, then, get on board and take part!

Then it will be Easter! And that is where we are headed.

* Christl Fink, Stecher-Kalender 2025

Rosemarie Monnerjahn

Vallendar, February 19th, 2026

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