Today’s Reflection
Gospel: Mt 16: 24-28
August 5, 2022 | Friday

Today’s Gospel

Then Jesus said to his disciples, “If you want to follow me, deny yourself. Take up your cross and follow me. For whoever chooses to save his life will lose it, but the one who loses his life, for my sake, will find it. What will one gain by winning the whole world, if he destroys his soul? Or what can a person give, in exchange for his life? Know, that the Son of Man will come, in the glory of his Father with the holy angels, and he will reward each one according to his deeds. Truly, I tell you, there are some standing here who will not taste death, before they see the Son of Man coming in his kingdom.”

Today’s Reflection:

True discipleship is the willingness to embrace the challenge of the cross and self-emptying. Just as Jesus embraced His cross and died on it, so we, as His followers, must also freely embrace the mystery of the cross which requires sacrifices and self-emptying. Such a big sacrifice would enjoy the promise of the Kingdom just as Jesus was glorified. Hence, true discipleship is a call for detachment and attachment—we must learn to detach from worldly allurements in order to be attached to Jesus.

We have different crosses that we carry every day in our lives which make us share in the suffering and passion of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we are being assured of the glorious resurrection which is the final destination of our way of the cross—- the Christian life itself. We may lose everything in this word for the sake of following Him but we gain so much from the treasure of the Kingdom.

/Vulnerasti, 2022