Readings:
Nahum 2:1.3; 3:1-3.6-7
Matthew 16: 24-28
Reflection:
Job seeking can be a full-time activity for those who seriously want to work. Hence, the way that Jobs are advertised is vital to understanding what is being offered. Sometimes, Jobs are very enticing, but reading the fine print can be disastrous.
Well, with the opening sentence in today’s Gospel, it is an advertising disaster! ‘If anyone wants to be a follower of mine, let them renounce themselves, and take up the Cross and follow me’, says the Lord! What about the fringe benefits? What about travelling allowance? What about superannuation? Nothing is offered, except in the fine print He says, ‘what then will a person gain, if they win the whole world and ruin their life’?
Our Lord’s Job advertisement is not about material gain! It’s about spiritual benefit. Let’s face it, when the chips are down, that’s a lasting reward; being spiritually rich and with an unconditional Biblical mind, we automatically become ‘givers of Christ’s life and love’ to others.
In the first reading from the Old Testament, the Prophet Nahum is over the moon with excitement by feverishly shouting to the people, that even through enduring gross mistreatment and hardship, our God is a God of hope. From the ashes new life appears. Through suffering it may not lead to annihilation, but love is the first bud which appears in the form of fulfilled hope. As the great English Writer, C.S. Lewis once said, ‘Jesus did not come to take pain and suffering away, He came to fill it with His presence.’
Kevin Walsh is a priest in the Diocese of Parramatta in Sydney. He has been formed in the Passionist tradition and Ministers to the Aged, the Sick, the Dying and the Bereaved.