REFLECTIONS TODAY Peter rebukes Jesus for predicting his own suffering and death at the hands of men, but Jesus rebukes him in return for thinking in human terms (Mk 8:32-33). God the Father has a mission for Jesus that is beyond human comprehension, and Jesus is determined to accomplish the will of the heavenly Father. Anyone who hinders him from fulfilling his destiny is like “Satan” (Hebrew ha-satan, the one who opposes God and the accuser of believers). Jesus is not only determined to pursue his mission, he also invites his disciples to follow him. Here, he sets the condition for discipleship: denial of one’s self, readiness to take up the cross, and risking to lose one’s life. But life is not just existence in this world, for human beings are destined to share eternal life with God. If one is ready to lose his earthly life out of faithfulness to Jesus, he will be acknowledged before God’s holy angels in the afterlife. In this sense, St. Lorenzo Ruiz de Manila would bravely respond to his persecutors who said that they would let him live if he renounced his faith: “I am a Catholic and wholeheartedly do accept death for God; Had I a thousand lives, all these to Him shall I offer.” FIRST READING • Gn 11:1-9 The whole world spoke the same language, using the same words. While the people were migrating in the east, they came upon a valley in the land of Shinar and settled there. They said to one another, “Come, let us mold bricks and harden them with fire.” They used bricks for stone, and bitumen for mortar. Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the sky, and so make a name for ourselves; otherwise we shall be scattered all over the earth.” The Lord came down to see the city and the tower that they had built. Then the Lord said: “If now, while they are one people, all speaking the same language, they have started to do this, nothing will later stop them from doing whatever they presume to do. Let us then go down and there confuse their language, so that one will not understand what another says.” Thus the Lord scattered them from there all over the earth, and they stopped building the city. That is why it was called Babel, because there the Lord confused the speech of all the world. It was from that place that he scattered them all over the earth. Gospel • Mk 8:34—9:1 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.” Source: “365 Days with the Lord 2023,” St. Paul’s, 7708 St. Paul Rd., SAV, Makati City (Phils.); Tel.: 632-895-9701; Fax 632-895-7328; E-mail: [email protected]; Website: http://www.stpauls.ph.