Word to the Wise
Tuesday, March 1, 2022 - Tuesday in the 8th Week in Ordinary Time
[1 Pet 1:10-16 and Mark 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 ages to come." [Mark]
When I was a student brother (seminarian), there was a common expression for any noticeable gift or "bonus" that came to the community. We would say, "It's all part of the 'hundredfold!'" (In older translations of this passage, the word "hundredfold" means the same as "hundred times." ) The expression also carries with it a subtle reference to the version of this incident in the Gospel According to Matthew (19:27) where Peter is also quoted as saying, in addition, "What will there be for us?" Would that question occur to us now? If we give up all to follow Jesus, would we do so in the light of that additional concern?
Scripture scholars point to the early Christian practice of holding all things in common. (cf. Acts 2:42-47 and 4:32-35). The community addressed by the Gospel According to Mark, the earliest of the gospels, would have been experiencing and struggling with this. The instinct to hold on to what we own is natural - a part of the survival instinct. It can be difficult to surrender that to a larger reality, to put one's trust in one's fellow members of the community. I know this from my own experience in religious life as a Dominican friar.
Jesus warns us not to follow him with the idea of material gain. St. Augustine later on in his "rule," warns members about this whose lifestyle IMPROVED when they entered the community! At the same time, Jesus promises we will have what we need in relationships and material resources from fellow believers. To follow Christ as a member of a community to which we surrender everything means more than material stuff. It means our very selves. It is the "school of charity," and the basic course of Christianity 101! AMEN
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