Episode Details

Top of the morning everyone! Howdi! All the best!Today is Wednesday, 4 March 2025. I continue praying intensely for the Holy Father. He direly needs our prayers and sacrifices. In fact, if we are just a bit more loving for God in fulfilling our duties of state, I bet you so much that this will help in Pope Francis’ recovery.We have another rather brief gospel today. We read from Mark 10:28-31.“Peter began to say to Jesus, ‘We have given up everything and followed you.””He makes this statement after the rich young man had approached Jesus asking Him what he needed to do to win his salvation. Our dear Lord asked him to sell everything he possessed and to follow Him. Hearing that, that man left Jesus’ side. He turned down His petition. He was sad not being able to do what our blessed Lord asked Him to do. He opted to stick with to his earthly wealth and possessions. Remember, he was rich. He did not want to part ways with that. That explains why he was sad. It seems to me that he valued his treasures more than the most precious jewel of following Our Lord at His request. He does not trust the Lord enough to do as He told him.Then, Jesus expresses how difficult it would be for the rich to enter Heaven. By rich He refers to those who do not want to part with their riches. This is the real meaning of being wealthy. There seems then to be another god, rivalling the one and only real God, Jesus Christ. He failed the test. Wealth itself is not bad. The attachment to it to the detriment of our trusting God and His plans for us is the problem.This is the setting of St. Peter’s claim of having followed Jesus and left everything. Recall how they left their fishing in the Sea of Galilee to fish for men. Jesus invited Simon not to be afraid. He implied that he trust Him.Jesus reacts “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.” Jesus assures Peter and the rest of us through the centuries who would leave everything to follow Him, that we would receive much more than what we leave behind. He specifies that it would have to be everything. Everything means that, everything! Little or much, it does not matter, as long as it is everything we leave behind. What Jesus demands is that we trust Him absolutely. Then, He assures us that we could expect from Him everything also. He calls it the hundredfold! When? Now, in this life!Our Lord does not hide some of the difficulties and suffering following Him would entail. Following Him would bring persecution to us. But He continues to be reassuring. He promises more we will gain than what we “loose” in following Him.I can personally attest to this. I recall coming to the point of seriously considering God’s call. I realized that I had only one life. What He was asking was I leave everything behind. Everything! That means no money, no honey, no nothing. All my earnings would go to Opus Dei. The Work would be like my “wife”. I surrender all to her. I could ask for money for personal needs and so forth. But I surrender deciding on my own regarding finances. ...