Memorial of Saint Philip Neri, Priest

Today's Mass Readings

Today’s gospel passage begins with Peter pointing out to Jesus that he and his fellow apostles have given up everything to follow him. This prompts Jesus to speak about the reward that comes from following him. This in turn draws our attention because we, like Peter, would like to know what benefits we can expect from following Jesus.

What Jesus says in response is that anyone who has given up houses, families, children, or lands for his sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will receive “a hundred times 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.” Everything sounds good, both for this present age and in the age to come, until we run into that one phrase, “with persecutions.” We wonder how this bad thing snuck its way into the middle of all these good things that we can expect if we give up all to follow Christ and the gospel.

What we don’t see, until we think about it a little bit, is that these persecutions are part of the reward. Jesus suffered persecution during his life, so our suffering persecution during our lives makes us more like Jesus. And we do experience “persecution” of a sort any time we stick to something in our Christian beliefs and values that goes against the culture that we live in. This is something that all faithful Christians will experience. But when we experience this form of suffering, and we follow Christ’s example in suffering, we join our suffering to Christ’s and participate with him in the salvation of the world. This is true of any other form of suffering we experience. This is part of the reason Jesus allows us to suffer, to give us the opportunity to become like him and to join with him in bringing Salvation to the world.

Reflection by Fr. Aquinas Keusenkothen, OSB