Daily Gospel Reflection – Friday of the Sixth Week in Ordinary Time
Bishop Robert Barron
February 17, 2023
Friday of the Sixth Week in Ordinary Time
Gospel: Mk 8:34-39
Jesus summoned the crowd with his disciples and said to them,
"Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself,
take up his cross, and follow me.
For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it,
but whoever loses his life for my sake
and that of the Gospel will save it.
What profit is there for one to gain the whole world
and forfeit his life?
What could one give in exchange for his life?
Whoever is ashamed of me and of my words
in this faithless and sinful generation,
the Son of Man will be ashamed of
when he comes in his Father's glory with the holy angels."
He also said to them,
"Amen, I say to you,
there are some standing here who will not taste death
until they see that the Kingdom of God has come in power."
*United States Conference of Catholic
Bishop Robert Barron
Friends, in today’s Gospel, Jesus lays down the conditions of discipleship.
A few verses before our reading, Jesus predicted his Passion for the first time. He will sacrifice himself in love for the other—and in this, he will come to deeper life and become a source of life to others. Ronald Knox talked about the sign of the cross this way: the first two gestures form the letter "I," and the next two cross it out. That’s what the cross of Jesus meant and means.
In this scene, he gathers the crowd with his disciples and pronounces the formula for following him. We ought to be listening too with great attention: "Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me." The path of discipleship is the path of self-sacrificing love, and that means the path of suffering.
Then the great paradox: "For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and that of the Gospel will save it." Put that over your door, on the refrigerator, on your screensaver. There is no better one-line guide to the happy life.
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