Word to the Wise
Tuesday, March 1, 2011 - Tuesday in the 8th Week in Ordinary Time
[Sir 35:1-12 and Mark 10:28-31]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 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. [Mark]
Peter asks an obvious question after his astonishment over Jesus' advice to the young man to sell all his possessions and "come, follow me!" In essence he says, "We've done exactly that! So, what's in it for us?" All those things that Jesus was advising his followers to give up were seen as great evidence of divine favor! Jesus' advice seems counter-intuitive! Furthermore, why invite persecution? Eternal life is all well and good, but there's the NOW to live in as well!
The Gospel of Mark has a kind of "in your face" quality about it. Jesus makes it clear that nothing comes before a commitment to him. Everything else is secondary. The things that Peter considers blessings have to be seen in the context of the commitment in faith. That commitment has to come first or the rest doesn't make any sense. The blessing can become a curse when it gets in the way of the Kingdom of God. Those blessings can disappear quickly when persecution comes. Only faith will sustain in the long run. Jesus demands that the NOW be dedicated to him and not to material security. That is a tough message but it does cut through all the "What if's?" that we can come up with when faced with the demands of faith. AMEN
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