Reflection for February 23, Thursday after Ash Wednesday: Luke 9:22-25

Gospel: Luke 9:22-25

Jesus said to his disciples: “The Son of Man must suffer greatly and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed and on the third day be raised.” 

Then he said to all, “If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. What profit is there for one to gain the whole world yet lose or forfeit himself?”

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Reflection:

Would you be willing to faithfully follow Jesus? 

There is always a price to pay if we decide to faithfully follow Jesus. For example, Jesus himself tells us in the gospel that we must deny ourself of something and we must decide also to carry our own cross. These are the preconditions, there’s no free ride in following Jesus. We have to sacrifice our wealth, power, and the like for the cause of Jesus. 

But we have nothing to worry about these sacrifices because these are all temporal things that  may fly away from our hands anytime. What would Jesus give us in exchange for our earthly detachment? The Lord will give us something that is out of this world.  

What would it profit us if we have all the wealth and influence in this world yet we don’t have Jesus in our life? Material possession come and go same as with our very lives. We come into this world wearing nothing and with nothing and we leave this world with nothing as well. 

Let us not be afraid of the things that we will sacrifice in favor of our faithful discipleship for Jesus. For the reason that our earthly sacrifice is not in anyway comparable with the guidance and protection that we will have once we decide to faithfully follow Jesus. – Marino J. Dasmarinas