How eager are we to give up our lives for the sake of eternal life in God’s kingdom? It is easy to follow Christ, to commit our lives to Him and to cling on to His words when everything is going well. However, what if things go the other way around? What if there will be sufferings, pains, trials, persecution or death?

Three days after our entrance into the seminary, the abrupt news came to me that my mother was positive for COVID and she was in a coma. I was hopeful that my mother would soon recover. I contacted all the people who could help us storm the heavens. A few days later came the death of my mother. It was so instant that it shocked our whole family. For a person who had just started his seminary formation and had entrusted his loved ones to God, I was a little bit perturbed. Did God abandon my family? What does God want to tell me?

If I did not believe in God’s words and promises, perhaps I would not be in the seminary anymore, yet I remained. The death of a loved one could not change the fact that God has been faithful to me and to my family all these years. A single trial could not erase thousands of blessings and graces. The Gospel reminds me that sufferings, pains, trials, persecution, or death are simply indicators that the life we have now is not the life God intended for us. There is eternal life waiting for those who surrender to God and remain hopeful and faithful amidst life’s challenges.

By: Sem. Edward R. Miana

Today’s Gospel

Mk 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.”