What Will There Be for Us?

Tuesday of the Twentieth Week in Ordinary Time

By Melanie Rigney

Because you have thought yourself to have the mind of a god, therefore I will bring against you foreigners, the most barbarous of nations. They shall draw their swords against your beauteous wisdom, they shall run them through your splendid apparel. They shall thrust you down to the pit, there to die a bloodied corpse, in the heart of the sea. Will you then say, “I am a god!” when you face your murderers? (Ezekiel 28:6-9)

It is I who deal death and give life. (Deuteronomy 32:39c)

Then Peter said to him in reply, “We have given up everything and followed you. What will there be for us?” (Matthew 19:27)

Piety

Lord, may I always keep You front and center in my life, for you are all I need.

Study

Heinrich Hofmann [Public domain],
via Wikimedia Commons

You know how your favorite scripture reading can change from time to time, depending on where you are on your spiritual journey and what joys and challenges life is tossing at you? Well, right now, at this particular juncture, it’s Matthew 19:27 I find myself turning to again and again:

Then Peter said to him in reply: “We have given up everything and followed you. What will there be for us?”

Everything indeed, it must have seemed to them then: time with their families. Time spent on fishing, tax collecting, and the other activities that had consumed them. Independence and security and perhaps a bit of ego. Logical, then, to ask what they were going to get in return since Jesus had just said those with riches would have to give them away to follow him.

Do you ever feel like you too have given up everything to follow Him? I do—time, talent, and treasure. I’m not complaining, just stating what it looks like to me. And when His next desire for me manifests itself, I find myself asking like Peter, “Really? Do you want more? How can I do more? You already have everything. When do I get something back?”

Then sanity and faith prevail… and I pick up that cross, sometimes daily or even hourly, and give up more… time with silly computer games. A tendency to talk first and think second. Doughnuts in the morning.

And my prayer becomes, “Jesus, I trust in You… regardless of any tangible result, there may be here on earth.”

Action

Just for today, do what the Lord desires, remember that what’s in it for you is peace and the promise of eternal life to the faithful.