No profit in losing one’s self

Thursday After Ash Wednesday
Gospel: Luke 9:22-25
https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/030625.cfm

In first reading this passage, it’s easy to take it to mean that Jesus is calling us to self-denial, but in taking a deeper look, he’s actually calling us to self fullness. We can often see self-gratification as self-fulfillment, but that’s not the case. Self-gratification leads to the need for more gratification. In seeking material worth, such as power, money, and personal pleasure, we are escaping our real and true purpose. 

The material-drive blinds us to who we and others are. We become a slave to ends that are not God, that are not love. We can easily see others as a means to an end versus being created in the image of God and needing our love and care. We measure ourselves to the successes we perceive others to have and lose sight of the beauty we are in God. This all becomes clear at the conclusion of this gospel when Jesus says, “What profit is there for one to gain the whole world yet lose or forfeit himself?”

God wants us to live true and full lives; ones that are not seeking that which is not eternal. Taking up our cross is to directly face the struggles of life and not seek to escape them. Let the journey bring fulfillment. There is a freedom found when we stop worrying about how we measure up. Life is not a competition or a fight. God doesn’t want us to fight with or run away from life, but to live, to live life to its fullness. Take up the cross, free yourself from worldly needs, find yourself, and live fully in God.