Friday of week 18 in Ordinary Time
Saint Teresa Benedicta of the Cross (Edith Stein), Virgin, Martyr
Gospel – Matthew 16:24-28
“What, then, will a man gain if he wins the whole world and ruins his life? These words of Jesus mean you can gain the whole world, but you can lose your life. How is that possible? That means, what you are gaining or achieving does not have the space for your life. It has space for everything else but not space for your soul, for your heart, for your life. We are occupying many things in our life in the way that we don’t find space for our life. It’s a contradiction but that it’s the truth. Sometimes, we experience this as an emptiness even if our day is full of activities and engagements. This happens because, amidst of all our activities, our soul or our heart was not taken care of. We go behind the desires of our egoism but not behind Jesus. Only by belonging to Jesus, our soul feels fulfilled. Because only in Jesus we have space for our life. Whenever we try to find space for ourselves elsewhere, we end up having empty feeling. Because it takes our time, energy and everything. But in Jesus, we find life because Jesus is life. And He gives us everything. In the life of St Teresa Benedicta of the Cross, we can see that. Let’s reflect: Do I go behind the desires of my egoism or behind Jesus?
Don Giorgio