Mark 10: 28-31
Peter began to say to him, “Look, we have left everything and followed you.” Jesus said, “Truly I tell you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields, for my sake and for the sake of the good news, who will not receive a hundredfold now in this age—houses, brothers and sisters, mothers and children, and fields, with persecutions—and in the age to come eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and the last will be first.”
New Revised Standard Version, copyright 1989, by the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved. USCCB approved.
Reprioritize My Relationship with Christ
The Gospel passage today invites us to spend some time reflecting on our personal priorities. If asked point-blank, what would you say is the most important thing in your life? If your friends, family members, and coworkers were asked the same question about you, what would they say? How do we spend the bulk of our time and resources? Who do we spend the time with?
We need to be brutally honest about the fact that we live in a popular cultural context that unapologetically prioritizes the instantaneous gratification of whatever desire one happens to have from one moment to the next. And this mentality is diametrically opposed to the teaching we hear today from our Lord and Creator.
To be crystal clear, the Lord isn’t calling us to live miserable lives devoid of pleasure and happiness. Just the opposite, in fact. Christ desires our deepest fulfillment in every possible way. By calling us to reprioritize relationship with himself, the Lord invites us to let go of the disordered attachments that prevent us from fully surrendering ourselves to his infinite, eternal love.
—Ben Jansen, SJ, is a Midwest Jesuit scholastic teaching English and anthropology at Elisabeth University of Music in Hiroshima, Japan.
Prayer
O Holy and Ever living God, you are the author of life and the source of goodness itself. You know the deepest and most desperate desires of our hearts before we ever ask, and you have created our hearts to find their total fulfillment in you. Grant us this day, O Lord, the grace to see ourselves clearly and to know of your deep desire for relationship with us. Give us the strength and clarity of purpose to let go of all those things in our lives that prevent us from drawing near to you. In your tender mercy and compassion, draw us ever closer to your Sacred Heart. We ask all these things through Christ, our Lord. Amen.
—Ben Jansen, SJ