Mark 10:28-31

Sirach 35:1-12

Psalm 50:5-6, 7-8, 14, 23

Mark 10:28-31

Peter began to say to Jesus,

“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.”

Opening Prayer: Lord God, I offer up my sufferings and sacrifices united to those of your Son. Help me to see my life and human history with eyes of faith. I see how you have acted in my life, and for that, I am grateful and praise you for your mighty works.

Encountering the Word of God

1. This Age and the Age to Come: When Mark uses the phrases “this age” and “age to come,” he is using and transforming two very technical terms found in first-century Jewish thought and theology. In Jewish thought, “this age” refers to the present visible sphere of creation that we live in. It is a world that is fallen, marked by sin, and under the power of wicked forces. In Jewish thought, the present age would one day pass away and be replaced by the world to come: “[T]his present world is a place of sorrow, suffering, and evil that will eventually come to an end; it will be replaced by the world to come, a place of joy, immortality, and righteousness” (Pitre, Barber, Kincaid, Paul, A New Covenant Jew, 68). While Jewish thought considered the two ages or worlds as successive realities, Christian thinkers, like Paul, John, and Mark, saw the old and new creations as overlapping spheres of reality that find their meeting point in Christ. “Through the passion, death, resurrection, and exaltation of Christ, the old world was put to death and the new world began. Because of this, believers who are ‘in Christ’ live in a kind of ‘in-between’ realm, where the old and new creations ‘intermingle’ with one another. On the one hand, they continue to live and suffer in this world of sin and death; yet […] in several very profound ways they already share in the glory of the life of the new creation” (Pitre, Barber, Kincaid, Paul, A New Covenant Jew, 73). And so, in the Gospel today, Jesus speaks of his disciples enduring persecution in this present age and sacrificially giving up everything, yet also receiving one-hundredfold blessings in this age. These blessings include introduction into the family of God and receiving the seed of eternal life that begins to grow in us through baptism.

2. Final Lessons from Mark: Today marks the end of our semi-continuous reading of the Gospel of Mark. After the seasons of Lent and Easter, we will begin to read from the Gospel of Matthew. If we try to distill the essence of Mark’s Gospel, we see that it answers two important questions. First, it responds to the question: “Who is Jesus?” and, second, it responds to the question, “What does it mean to follow Jesus and be his disciple?” To the first question, Mark responds that Jesus is the Christ and the Son of God. And, on the way to Jerusalem, Jesus details what being the Christ, the Anointed One of God, entails: suffering, dying on the Cross, and rising from the dead. To the second question, Mark responds that being a disciple ultimately means suffering with Christ and rising to new life with him. Today’s Gospel continues to deepen the mystery of following Jesus: we are called to give up the things of this passing world for the sake of Christ and the Gospel, and we will receive in the present age many blessings and eternal life in the age to come!

3. Our Sacrifices: Today also marks the end of our semi-continuous reading of the Book of Sirach. The passage we read describes worship that is acceptable to God. The author equates several actions to the temple sacrifices: keeping the law and the commandments are equated to an oblation and the sacrifices of a peace offering; works of charity are equated to the cereal offering (Leviticus 2:1-16); giving alms is equated to the thank offering (Leviticus 7:12); and refraining from evil and avoiding injustice is equated to an atoning sin-offering. We are encouraged to glorify the Lord generously and give generously to the Lord, who will repay us generously sevenfold.

Conversing with Christ: Lord Jesus, you are my life. You are my strength and the one who can bring me to share in eternal life. Teach me to worship God the Father by uniting my self-offering with you and by offering it in your Holy Spirit.

Living the Word of God: For almost eight weeks, we have meditated almost every day on passages from the Gospel of Mark. What are my main takeaways from this Gospel? Have I grown deeper in my faith in Jesus Christ, the Son of God? Have I understood what it means to follow Jesus as one of his disciples on the way? Have I experienced Jesus’ healing power?