Daily Gospel Reflection – Thursday after Ash Wednesday
February 23, 2023
Thursday after Ash Wednesday
Gospel: Lk 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?"
*United States Conference of Catholic
Bishop Robert Barron
Friends, in today’s Gospel, the Lord lays out the conditions for discipleship. He makes this demand: "For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it."
Notice please that this is not simply a question of accepting suffering that happens to befall one. This is not simply a Stoic resignation. Jesus is telling us actively to take up our crosses, to seek them out, to carry them as he willingly carried his. What Jesus did on the cross was bear the burden of the world’s sin. He bore others’ burdens in love. And this is what we must do: actively, proactively seek out ways to lighten other people’s loads.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer commented that when the Lord summons a person to discipleship, he calls him to come and die. When the blind Bartimaeus received his sight, at the midpoint of the Gospel of Mark, he followed Jesus up the road that would lead to Calvary. The way of the Christian life begins and ends with the man who is God dying on a cross.
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