Miss
no single opportunity of making some small sacrifice, here by a smiling look,
there by a kindly word; always doing the smallest right and doing it all for
love. – St. Therese of Lisieux: (1873 –
1897: was a Roman Catholic French Discalced Carmelite nun widely venerated in
modern times.)
Gospel Text: (MK 10:28-31)
Peter began to say to Jesus,
'We have given up everything and
followed you."
Jesus said, "Amen, I say to you,
there is no one who has given up house
or brothers or sisters
or mother or father or children or
lands
for my sake and for the sake of the
Gospel
who will not receive a hundred times
more now in this present age:
houses and brothers and sisters
and mothers and children and lands,
with persecutions, and eternal life in
the age to come.
But many that are first will be last,
and the last will be first."
Is there some regret in Peter’s heart
as he lays bare the sacrifice he’s made to follow Jesus? Jesus explains that
both in this world and the next, a disciple’s sacrifice bears fruit. In “this
present age”, material sacrifices are compensated by the superabundance shared
in by the church, the assembly of disciples gathered with Jesus. All the more,
“in the age to come”, eternal life with Jesus is the consequence of following
Him. Jesus’ logic lays bare what St. Francis of Assisi expressed in his
canticle: “It is in giving that we receive, and in dying that we are born to
eternal life.”
Jesus gives us a brief saying to sum
up the logic of discipleship. “Many that are first will be last, and the last
will be first.”