Reading
Mark 10:28-31
28 Then Peter spoke up, “We have left everything to follow you!”
29 “Truly I tell you,” Jesus replied, “no one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for me and the gospel 30 will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present age: homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and fields—along with persecutions—and in the age to come eternal life. 31 But many who are first will be last, and the last first.”
Meditation
In Jewish thought, earthly well-being is considered a blessing from God, a reward for the righteous. Job himself, who is deprived of all that is dearest to him (his children, his possessions, his health) sees his last years blessed by God (Job 42:12) and when he reaches one hundred and forty years, " he died old and full of days "(Job 42:17).
But what good is it for those who have followed the advice given by Jesus to the rich young man, to leave everything to follow him? «Behold, we have left everything and followed you; what then will we get from it? " (Mt 19:27) Peter asks Jesus with his rough frankness.
Jesus promises to give the hundredfold from this life and eternal life in the time of "regeneration". His words are not an invitation to abandon friends and relatives in their needs, but to put the needs of the Kingdom in the first place, to win every man to the faith and live the mystery of the communion of the saints of heaven and earth. He exhorts us to live our relationship with earthly goods with detachment, in order to enjoy the fruits of the Spirit.
Persecutions will accompany the Lord's blessings for his faithful (v. 30). But the problems and difficulties encountered in the world because of the gospel can themselves become a source of blessing, helping us to mature in faith: we will be like branches pruned in the right season, to bear more abundant fruit.
Prayer
All we have, o Lord, belongs to you; but you ask us not to come into your presence empty-handed. Give us a free heart to receive your blessings in abundance. Amen.
- Rev. Dr. Luca Vona
