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Manila Bulletin devider Opinion devider Whoever wishes to come after Me...

Whoever wishes to come after Me...

Published Aug 10, 2023 04:00 pm

REFLECTIONS TODAY

Gird your loins

Many Christians find it difficult to see the cross as an essential part of following Jesus. Reflecting on the cost of discipleship, one Christian song (Oh, you can’t get to heaven) succinctly puts it this way: “You can’t get to heaven in a rocking chair.” The cross is an inevitable reality in Christian living. Self-denial is necessary. It is only through it that one becomes capable of abandoning self-contained goals and transfer the control of his existence to the hands of a loving Father who has designed from the beginning only the good of all his children. Self-centeredness often drives one to self-preservation rather than seeing productivity in consuming life for the sake of others. Apart from Jesus and the meaning he gave to the cross, it is indeed difficult to understand the suffering that goes together with discipleship.

 

First Reading • Dt 4:32-40
Moses said to the people: “Ask now of the days of old, before your time, ever since God created man upon the earth; ask from one end of the sky to the other: Did anything so great ever happen before? Was it ever heard of? Did a people ever hear the voice of God speaking from the midst of fire, as you did, and live? Or did any god venture to go and take a nation for himself from the midst of another nation, by testings, by signs and wonders, by war, with his strong hand and outstretched arm, and by great terrors, all of which the Lord, your God, did for you in Egypt before your very eyes?  


All this you were allowed to see that you might know the Lord is God and there is no other. Out of the heavens he let you hear his voice to discipline you; on earth he let you see his great fire, and you heard him speaking out of the fire. For love of your fathers he chose their descendants and personally led you out of Egypt by his great power, driving out of your way nations greater and mightier than you, so as to bring you in and to make their land your heritage, as it is today. 


This is why you must now know, and fix in your heart, that the Lord is God in the heavens above and on earth below, and that there is no other. You must keep his statutes and commandments which I enjoin on you today, that you and your children after you may prosper, and that you may have long life on the land which the Lord, your God, is giving you forever.”

 

Gospel • Matthew 16:24-28 
Jesus said to his disciples: “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 will find it. What profit would there be for one to gain the whole world and forfeit his life? Or what can one give in exchange for his life? For the Son of Man will come with his angels in his Father’s glory, and then he will repay each according to his conduct. Amen, I say to you, there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see the Son of Man coming in his Kingdom.

Source: “365 Days with the Lord 2023,” St. Paul’s, 7708 St. Paul Rd., SAV, Makati City (Phils.); Tel.: 632-895-9701; E-mail: [email protected]; Website: http://www.stpauls.ph.

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