Gaining Life
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Friday of the Eighteenth Week in Ordinary Time
Read this Gospel passage aloud to the family
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.”
(Parent) Reread this part a few times aloud
“For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.”
(Parent) Read this meditation aloud to the family
We have heard this Gospel many times, which is good. However, we must not stop listening deeply to its message. Jesus is strongly emphasizing the importance of giving something up—our lives. After all, this is what He did. But we must not think of Jesus’ message in a negative way, as though it is primarily about losing, or having less, or only about suffering and death. These might be necessary aspects of His message, but ultimately, His message is about gaining great things, about having more. It is about finding joy and life.
This is why Jesus tells us that if we lose our lives for Him, in reality we will find our lives. In the Gospels, Jesus speaks of life with Him as having life “abundantly” (John 10:10) . Jesus is not encouraging us simply to lose our lives—that’s never meant to be the end of the story. Jesus is telling us to lose our self-centered lives devoted to comfort and pleasure and absorbed by worries, problems, and ourselves. He is asking us also to find the fulfillment of life with Him. Jesus made us to have lives of abounding happiness and true fulfillment. When we lose our self-centered lives, we really gain much more!
As a family, pray a portion of the Rosary together (very short if children are young) reflecting on the Scripture passage above. (Optional: allow a brief time for discussion or questions from children concerning their thoughts and prayer.)
Reminder for Parents: Pier is just meant to be a jumping off point. The real goal is that you pray & eventually use the fruits of your personal prayer as the content of your family’s prayer. Duc in altum.
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