Tuesday in the Eighth Week of Ordinary Time, May 30, 2023

Mark 10, 28-31

Peter began to say to Jesus, ‘“We have given up everything and followed you.” Jesus said, “Amen, I say to you, there is no one who has given up house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands for my sake and for the sake of the Gospel who will not receive a hundred times more now in this present age: houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and eternal life in the age to come. But many that are first will be last, and the last will be first.”

The present Gospel Reading follows yesterday’s Reading as part of the same episode.  The Lord Jesus has just told a man who has come up to him in earnest in order to ask him what he must do to be saved.  The Lord tells him to sell the property to which he is much devoted because it is a hindrance to his salvation and then to come and follow him.  So many recognize that the Lord alone is their salvation but when he gives them clear direction in answer to their prayers they bridle and refuse to go forward.  They want salvation, but they cannot or will not stop wanting something else more.  In this case it is covetousness, but for others it is fornication, worldly ambition, and pride.  We cling to these as though they were our very flesh and cannot imagine life without them.

The previous Gospel Reading ended with the Lord pronouncing, “Children, how hard it is to enter the Kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for one who is rich to enter the Kingdom of God.”  That is, we make it hard for ourselves to enter the Kingdom of God through our attachments.  The Lord particularly cites the rich, since the man who came to him had many possessions.  Peter, hearing this, is alarmed.  In understanding his alarm it pays us to keep in mind that at this point Peter and his fellow Apostles believe that Jesus is the promised Messiah who would restore the kingdom of Israel.  He has been taught from his youth by the Pharisees that that was the Messiah’s mission.  He was to be a latter-day Joshua, overrunning the strongholds of the Romans.  Thus, Peter and the others had their eyes on great prizes for following Jesus that they would receive when he was victorious.  These would be worth giving up the comparatively little that they had to begin with.  These words of Jesus then strike Peter as telling him and the others that no such rewards would be given them: those who are rich will not have a part in the new Israel.  We can hear the dismay and perhaps a touch of anger in Peter’s outburst: “We have given up everything and followed you.”  It is as though he feels he is being played for a sucker.

The Lord probably did not reply immediately.  Given Peter’s feelings, we should think that the Lord gave him a few moments so that he could hear his reply.  “Amen, I say to you, there is no one who has given up house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands for my sake and for the sake of the Gospel who will not receive a hundred times more now in this present age.”  The Lord assures his Apostles that they will indeed receive an abundant reward, and he does so in concrete terms they can understand.  No one wants to work long hours for many years for some vague or abstract reward.  Then the Lord adds, “With persecutions, and eternal life in the age to come.”  He does not hide how much they will have to endure for their reward, and also promises them eternal life for this, a prize far greater than any number of “houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands”.  In this way the Lord contrasts the response of the rich man with their own.  Of course the path to life requires sacrifice.  It does not fall into the lap as the rich man thought it should.  Neither should the Apostles think that, but recognize, accept, and resolve to endure persecution first so that they might truly enjoy the fruits of their labors later.