Freedom and Wealth Part II

In my rush to finish and get to sleep, I left out a part of my reflection.

One of the reasons why this topic was so striking, is because of the readings this week. The first readings are taken from the book of Maccabees, and it tells of how the Israelites were invaded and taken over by pagans, and how the king forced the Israelites to abandon their faith and practices. And yet there were people who were willing to give up their lives, willing to disobey the king then to disobey God. They were willing to give up the "freedom" that the king was offering them.

In tuesday's first reading, Eleazar, an old man, was given an option to live, but chose to die then to deny God and lead others astray. And as he walked to his instrument of torture, said

“The Lord in his holy knowledge knows full well that, although I could have escaped death, I am not only enduring terrible pain in my body from this scourging, but also suffering it with joy in my soul because of my devotion to him.”

Eleazar made a gift of his freedom back to the Lord. And then in wednesday's first reading, it was 7 young men who were put to death in front of their mother. And despite the king offering them life, freedom and wealth, the mother offered these words of encouragement.

“Therefore, since it is the Creator of the universe who shapes each man's beginning, as he brings about the origin of everything, he, in his mercy, will give you back both breath and life, because you now disregard yourselves for the sake of his law.”

Sounds so much like Jesus saying "For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it." Which was actually in last Friday's Gospel. In the light of my reflection, it has really brought a new meaning to this sentence. In fact this sentence is so important, that it is featured in all four Gospels, twice in Luke. And of course it is always preceded by "If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me."

So big challenge for me, to invest my freedom rightly, to pick up my cross daily. How far would I go to sacrifice my comfort, my freedom, my material possessions? Pray for me, and if you want me to pray for you, drop me a comment ;Þ Oh yah, I've been getting comment spam, so now if you want to leave a comment just have to enter the code displayed.