Reflection for March 3, 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?”

+ + + + +  + +

Reflection:

Are you afraid of suffering? 

Suffering is part and parcel of our Christian life; in fact we will not be able to reach the fullness of our Christian life without suffering.  For the reason that it is in our suffering that we intensely feel the presence of God. It is through these periods of sufferings that God becomes more real to us. 

Try observing your behavior when you don’t have sufferings. God seems distant for we rarely remember Him in our days of prosperity. But notice also that when we are having some difficult moments it seems that God is within our reach. We call on Him we cry and unburden to Him.  

In the gospel, Jesus tells His disciples about the suffering that He has to go through. Why? This is for the reason that this was Jesus’ destiny. From the beginning Jesus knew that He would be going through intense suffering. So why did He not exempted Himself from it when He actually could?  

Because Jesus is faithful to the mission that was given to Him by God, thus Jesus endured suffering for His love of God.  Therefore, the true measure of our love for God is when we are ready to suffer for Him and when we are ready to sacrifice our everything for Him. -  Marino J. Dasmarinas