May 29, 2018

Gospel: Mk 10:28-31
Peter spoke up and said, “We have given up everything to follow you.” Jesus answered, “Truly, there is no one who has left house, or brothers or sisters, or father or mother, or children, or lands, for my sake, and for the gospel, who will not receive his reward. I say to you: even in the midst of persecution, he will receive a hundred times as many houses, brothers, sisters, mothers, children, and lands in the present time; and, in the world to come, eternal life. Do pay attention: many who now are the first will be last, and the last, first.”

Reflections
We have given up everything to follow you To follow Jesus is painful because it involves many levels of “leaving behind” — family and friends, the familiar and secure, emotional baggage and unresolved angers, a certain control over one’s surroundings and one’s future. To follow Jesus thus entails multiple ways of dying to oneself. Nonetheless, to my surprise, whenever the Lord calls me to give up something, he offers me something better. Whenever the Lord bids me to go some place, I do not lose friends but gain innumerable new ones. What the Lord asks of us is nothing compared to what he offers us in return.

© Copyright Bible Diary 2018