"What's In It For Me?"

Gospel	Mark 10:28-31 ©

Whoever has left everything for the sake of the gospel will be repaid

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."

Pew Dwellers, we are about to embark on a forty-day journey with Jesus to Jerusalem.   On this Mardi Gras Tuesday we have to fortify ourselves for the journey.  First of all, be sure to celebrate today because it is our last day in base camp.  Tomorrow we leave and the joys and refreshments of base camp will start to become a distant memory as we trudge through the featureless sandy terrain. It will get hot, we will get hungry and thirsty and tired and perhaps even a little discouraged as we walk along.  We may wonder what the point of all of this is.  Peter wondered and he wondered out loud to Jesus.  Jesus answered him and told him that those that embark on this journey with Him will receive rewards in this life, will receive persecution for believing in Him and they will receive eternal life.

Make no mistake, our Lenten journey will have moments when our deepest desire will be to turn back. For along the journey we will be seeing ourselves in a new way.  If we ask God, He will show us how He sees us.  He will point out where we have gone wrong and where we have gone right.  We will find out things about ourselves that we always knew in our heart but kept hidden from our mind.  We will see our relationship with God in a new way.  We will recoil at the times we have sinned against God and we will cry in deep sorrow at what we have done because we will see God more as He is, Great, Majestic, Loving, and Holy.  Just when we thought that it could not get any hotter, the way any more uphill, we will be sent strength that will refresh our soul and we will continue the journey for at the end is the oasis of life and cool refreshment that will never end and joy that cannot be described in words available to us here.  At that moment we will see that the journey was worth it.  We will be stronger and at the same time more loving.  We will have clarity of vision and yet we will view people with merciful eyes.  We will have all that we need and yet give it all to those in need and we will not feel poor.  

Our Lenten journey will be what we make of it.  It has the potential to make a real spiritual difference in our lives.  It also can pass with us remaining in base camp and never venturing out of our tent and that would be sad.  We would be giving up our chance to become closer with the Lord for the ease and comfort of temporal things.  Do not waste this Lenten period.  The Church has designed it so that you can become closer to what you want to be.  Look at yourself in the mirror on this Fat Tuesday, celebrate wildly the imminent start of your journey and then on the morrow pick up your load of ashes and begin the walk of a lifetime.