We have given up everything

Sir 35,1-15; Ps 49; Mk 10,28-31
5 MARCH

The man with many goods did not leave anything, he did not follow Jesus. He was exposed to the danger of eternal non-salvation. Peter reassures Jesus. They left everything and followed him. Jesus has dictated them the rules of how everything is left both in the Gospel according to Matthew and in that according to Luke. Everything is really all, including the affections and every other relationship that could take away even a minute to delivery to the will of the Father. Jesus too has all been placed in the will of his Father.

As they were proceeding on their journey someone said to him, “I will follow you wherever you go.” Jesus answered him, “Foxes have dens and birds of the sky have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to rest his head.” And to another he said, “Follow me.” But he replied, “(Lord,) let me go first and bury my father.” But he answered him, “Let the dead bury their dead. But you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.” And another said, “I will follow you, Lord, but first let me say farewell to my family at home.” (To him) Jesus said, “No one who sets a hand to the plough and looks to what was left behind is fit for the kingdom of God” (Lk 9,57-62).

Then his mother and his brothers came to him but were unable to join him because of the crowd. He was told, “Your mother and your brothers are standing outside and they wish to see you.” He said to them in reply, “My mother and my brothers are those who hear the word of God and act on it” (Lk 8,19-21).

Abandoning everything is not easy. Abandoning things is not enough. We must leave every thought and desire of our heart, because it is the Father in the Holy Spirit the one who must take their place. Even this truth has been solemnly proclaimed by Jesus. One can also leave things, but it is himself the one that he must leave. St. Paul reveals to us that Jesus has emptied himself, he has been annihilated. He has given everything to the Father.

Have among yourselves the same attitude that is also yours in Christ Jesus, Who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God something to be grasped. Rather, he emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, coming in human likeness; and found human in appearance, he humbled himself, becoming obedient to death, even death on a cross. Because of this, God greatly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, of those in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father (Phil 2,5-11).

The temptations for who left everything to follow Jesus are without number. Little by little, temptation after temptation, one takes back mind, heart, will, time and decisions. Now one thing is left out and now another. Today we have recovered all the falsehood, immorality, idolatry, superstition and everything that belongs to the realm of darkness. Many are in the kingdom of God but at the service of the kingdom of darkness. Jesus was also perennially tempted to free himself from the Father and to follow his heart, without listening to the Holy Spirit anymore. Jesus never fell into one temptation. The never is absolute.

Peter began to say to him, “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.”

In an instant everything can also be left behind. But the uninterrupted blows of temptation begin immediately. This, similar to a pneumatic hammer, begins to dig into the mind, the heart and the will and gradually succeeds in creeping in. Once the crack has been produced, everything becomes easy. Over time all of us are conquered again. We are of Christ only marginally. We are of ourselves in fact and in reality. How not to manage to recover what we have left? There is only one way for this not to take place. Growing in wisdom and grace, reviving the Holy Spirit in us so that he can act with all his power and divine wisdom. Either we grow or we die.

Mother of God, Angels and Saints, do not allow us to take back what we have given.