FRIENDS and SERVANTS of the WORD
May 30, 2023 Tuesday 7 of Easter
WORD of the DAY
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.” (Mark 10: 29-30)
How shall I live this Word? 
This is a clear invitation to abandon everything that we think we possess in order to follow the Gospel: to abandon possessions, to be poor in the depths of ourselves. We are the first persecutors when we resist by clinging to our securities. But if we face with determination both the internal struggle (our being persecutors of ourselves) and the criticisms and persecutions of others we will above all receive eternal life. This brings us back to the first beatitude in Matthew 5:3 (Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.) Poor in everything because we entrust ourselves solely and exclusively to the Lord. We can be sure of this indication because He explicitly reminds us of it through Matthew 6:34 (Do not worry therefore about tomorrow) and Saint Paul further underlines it in Philippians 4:6 (Do not worry about anything)).
Lord, increase my faith and my abandonment to You!
The voice of Thomas Green SJ, author, missionary, educator
Poverty of spirit means not having desires of one’s own. Ultimately, it is not simply a question of abandoning things, nor one’s attachment to things, but even abandoning one’s will. As long as we can choose the things, the attachments that we want to abandon, even if we chose to abandon them all, we would still be the ones to choose; it would still be our will to be in control of the situation. As long as we are the ones who strip ourselves, we will not be truly poor in spirit. The bliss proclaimed by Jesus will be realized – become real – in us only after we have given up our will, so that our will too can be sanctified!”
____________________________________________________________________________
E-mail: srmterzo@gmail.com Website: www.sanbiagio.org info@sanbiagio.org Blog: livingscripture.wordpress.com Comment: Claudio Del Brocco
