You're Gonna Get It!

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."

Peter asks Jesus a question that has to be on all of our minds simply because we are human. "What's in it for me?"  Heaven help us that we should want to do good without some reward.  When I was in grammar school at one of the bastions of the Catholic Faith called "St. Joseph and St. Anne School" on the southwest side of Chicago the sisters that taught us showed us just how this system worked.  If you learned your lessons well and behaved just like a son or daughter of a saint in class, you would receive marks of sister's favor.  For example, you might be assigned to pick up or distribute papers or erase the blackboard.  All of these things showed that you had done something that pleased sister and was, at least for that moment, one of her favorites. Of course, if you did something really wonderful such as selling more World's Finest Chocolate than anyone else in the room, you might be inducted into what you would call in prison a trustee but in the hallowed halls of St. Joseph and St. Anne you would be called a monitor and would be placed in charge of the classroom whenever sister had to leave for a moment.  Your sworn duty would be to place the names of anyone who talked on the blackboard so that sister could deal with them when she returned.  To sister, you were a monitor, to your classmates you were a blackboard writing snitch.  You were also a girl since no boy would ever qualify as a snitch nor would he want to. Writing someone's name on the blackboard meant that they would be punished and that would mean trouble on the playground or most likely after school.  Girls didn't seem to mind being snitches because, of course, no girl ever misbehaved while sister was out of the classroom so there was no danger of them ever being punished. So, we gave and we got.  What we got might not be what we wanted in the case of a boy dumb enough to dare a girl to write his name on the blackboard.

So, we tend to want some sort of reward for being good.  Jesus told Peter that he was going to receive everything that he left behind back a hundred times over.  Peter did receive a church family that grew into the thousands which dwarfed his natural family.  He also received the other thing that Jesus promised him, persecution, being crucified upside down because he felt unworthy to die as his Master died. 

We who follow Christ receive all of the riches that the Faith can offer.  We receive graces from the Father, the joy of Christian companions that walk with us on the journey and the feeling of happiness in our soul because we know that we are pleasing the Father.  We also receive persecution.  People who have starved their spiritual selves hat us because our beliefs are "old-fashioned."  Our beliefs keep them from being totally free to engage in whatever behavior that comes to mind that goes against the laws of God.  They do not suffer us in silence.

So we will receive both good things and bad things if we remain faithful.  Enjoy the good, embrace it and savor it for it is our reward.   When the time comes and darkness begins to cloud our vision, remain faithful and pray for light and it will break in majesty and great beauty when it pleases the Father. 

Remember to pray for your relatives and friends who may be in purgatory.