TUESDAY of 8th WEEK
’Peter took this up, ’Look, ’he said, ’we have left everything and followed you.’
Peter’s question has self-interest in it, it is as if he is saying’ we have given everything, what shall we get? ’But his question is not brought about through selfishness. Peter wants to know what chance there is to enter into the Kingdom of God for those who have given everything to follow Christ.Peter’s question is still very present.We need to continually resituate ourselves in God’s Infinite Mercy. Is it possible to correspond to god’s love for us in giving everything we have? God so loved the world that he gave his Only Son! ’We’ve left everything to follow you ’says Peter. We realise that it is not the same order! The context in the Gospel is the man who desires to have eternal life. Jesus says to him : ’Sell all that you have and come, follow me.’ The ’follow me’ reveals an attitude of the gift of self! The lighting up of Jesus’ face full of Love is transformed into a face of sadness before this man’s refusal. Peter entered into the confidence of the Heart of Jesus, he was seized by the gaze that was full of love and sadness of Jesus. It is the way God looks at all of us. Thus we enter into contemplation and thanksgiving for this Love that is manifested but we need to go further!
’Jesus declared, ’Truly, truly, I say to you there is no one who has left house, brothers, sisters, mother, father, children or land for my sake and for the sake of the gospel who will not receive a hundred as much, houses, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and land-and persecutions too-now in this present time and in the world to come, eternal life.’
God Himself has given us houses, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and land. They are’ very good things’, blessings, but God is Love, these gifts take on their full meaning when we give thanks to God who gave them to us. To forget ones elf glorifies Christ and bears witness to the Gospel.The ’following Jesus’ is Jesus’ Way that we are to take, it is a sending forth in Mission in Jesus gaze, Jesus is the One
sent from the Father. We are put before the depth of the Word of God : God so loved the world that he sent his only Son’ Jesus held out in his Mission o save us, because he dwelt always in the ’gaze’ of Jesus.The one who is sent is enveloped by He who sends Him. The persecutions at the time did not prevent God’s work to come about, nor to continue our walk on the Way of Jesus to announce the Good News.
’Many who will be first will be last and the last first.’
Jesus said : Only Jesus Himself and the Gospel are worth the trouble to leave everything ’through Love of Him and the Gospel’. Only in Him do we find Salvation and only in Him are we fully happy; thus we gain a treasure in Heaven. Generosity is the measure of our Love; Love for others as Love for God. Having given everything humanly speaking in this world, we receive already in this life, the centuple, with a new way of loving , in Christ, our mother and father, our country, our friends who will thus be loved from now on. The centuple is a new way of loving given by God Himself. The love given to us comes directly from the Heart of God and it is with our heart filled with the Holy Spirit that we love the same people. but why with persecutions? Because God’s Love is not received in this world, the One sent by God will not be received. This new Love is already happiness of heaven on earth, everything is changed in us for eternal life has already begun. The Infinite Love of God ’God so loved the world that he gave his only Son’ is given to us. Jesus is living in the deepest part of ourselves, he gives to us His Father.