Tag: Brendan Bosanko

In the reading today, we see Jesus revealing his mission to the disciples: that he would die, and on the third day rise again. Peter, who was just praised and proclaimed “the Rock” for the Church, takes Jesus aside and rebukes him. “God forbid Lord! No such thing shall ever happen to you”. Here, Jesus returns the rebuke: “Get behind me Satan! You are an obstacle to me.”

These words are so filled with meaning! First, we can all see ourselves in Peter. We can so easily go from feeling loved by the Lord and being champions of His truth, to suddenly thinking like the world does and not understanding God’s vision. Second, look closely at what Jesus says. Last week, Peter was proclaimed the rock which the Church would be built on. Now, Peter is an obstacle, a tripping stone on Jesus’ path. How did that happen? Peter put himself IN FRONT of Jesus (and became a tripping hazard). And while it sounds like the Lord is totally rebuking Peter and commanding him to go away, he is actually just trying to put him the right place; “Get BEHIND me”, FOLLOW me. It’s only when Peter (and we) follow Jesus, (and not try and put ourselves in front of Him), that we can call ourselves “disciples”.

And this is what we’re following Jesus into: Mission. Like Jesus, the individual missions in our life are not safe. Friends, the purpose of our life is not to live a quiet, small, safe life in a nice home in the countryside! There is more for us!

I have a friend who tells me, whenever we’re saying goodbyes, “Live dangerously”. To be honest, I’d rather not. It doesn’t sound like a great idea to live that way! You could get hurt, lose things, get yelled at by others, etc etc. But in some way, this is what Jesus means by “take up your cross”. We can also see Jeremiah responding to this idea in the first reading. He feels cheated by God! He follows God’s will for him and speaks prophetic words to people and only gets persecuted in return. He constantly preaches words of doom and gloom. BUT – he has no other choice! When he tries to keep it in, he feels a fire in his bones. He HAS to preach the truth!

What would happen if YOU lived dangerously? Will you go to the streets and speak to those who are homeless and abandoned? Will you actually give up your possessions and money, and focus instead on community and growth? Would you speak the truth in love to your co-workers, family, friends? Will you sacrifice your time and your ego for your families, and rebuild burned bridges?

In the second reading, Saint Paul tells us to offer our bodies as living sacrifices, as an act of worship. He’s reiterating what Jesus calls us to do! If we’re only looking to save our own life (or just play it safe like Peter wanted to do), we’ll end up losing it anyway. But if we’re willing to lose our life for the sake of the Kingdom, we’ll find our TRUE life. We have to live dangerously, but also, as St. Paul says, live transformed, by the renewal of our minds. We can’t think as the world and as human beings do, but we must think as God does. How often do I default to a mindset of security, safety, and avoidance of risk and the uncomfortable. To live transformed is to do as God does: To deeply see others and make them feel known, to listen to the moving of the Holy Spirit, to lay down your ego at your job, in your family, everywhere; and to focus on the Kingdom.

So remember, playing it safe is not our mission.

Live Dangerously. Live Transformed. Deny yourself, carry your cross, and follow Jesus.

Songs for Reflection:

1. For the Sake of the World – Bethel
2. Called Me Higher – All Sons and Daughters
3. Seek First – Housefires
4. Build My Life – Housefires
5. Champion – Bethel, Dante Bowe
6. Fire in my Bones – SEU Worship

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In today’s gospel, we see a man asking Jesus what he needs to do to gain eternal life. Surprisingly, we don’t hear the ‘Grace Alone’ response of “Nothing at all! I’ll do it all for you, for my grace is sufficient”, but a rather simple response: “Keep the commandments”. “Which ones?” the man asks, in what seems like a silly, dodging kind of question, since we would presume all of them! Jesus specifies many of the original ten commandments, which if the man keeps, he will “enter into LIFE”. Again the man interjects “But I’ve done all that! What else?”. You or I might be happy at this point, knowing that we’ve done all that we have to do for eternal life itself! But the man isn’t satisfied, continuing his quite strange responses to Jesus. “Well if you want to be PERFECT, give away everything you have to the poor, and follow me”. At this, the man left, and was too sad about the prospect of losing all of his possessions.

So what happened here? Was this man’s heart in the right place? Do all of us need to surrender literally everything we have? And what can you and I learn from this encounter? Here are three points that I gleaned from today’s reading.

1. Jesus’ first response to the man was “Why do you ask me about the good? There is only One who is good”. I think this is an important primer for what we believe about eternal life and grace: God is Good, Goodness itself. Man, on his own and apart from God, is not good BECAUSE of our fallen state (although we were originally created good). So when this man asked what “good” he could do, Jesus made sure to clarify “anything good in you, and any good that you can do, comes from God alone”.
2. After Jesus clarifies the role of grace, he clarifies what we need to do: Following the Commandments leads to eternal life. This is not us “earning salvation with our own works”. A relationship with God is truly what saves us: but am I really your friend (or in a good relationship at all) if I constantly disrespect you, ignore you, etc? Following the commandments is what assures us that we are right with God. Aside from that, God truly is Ruler over all, and He wants us to follow his commandments, which he made ultimately for our benefit! And when we fall short, we always have a space to lean into His mercy, which He truly desires to give us.
3. The third point is this: Sacrifice leads to perfection. Beyond living rightly and running the race, we can only give up everything we have and serve radically. I immediately think of the religious orders in our Church, which Lumen Gentium from the Second Vatican Council calls the “perfect” state of life. We aren’t all called to this kind of perfection, as many of us are laity in the Church. But we all still can receive eternal life, and are called to live a life of following the Lord. The benefits of this kind of perfection are, as Jesus says in the reading, building up “treasure in heaven”.

Ultimately this reading also shows us that true wealth comes not in treasure stored on the earth, but in sharing what we have with others. A friend of mine who leads a ministry often says “Brendan, I’m a rich man” because of the incredible community that we have (due in part to his own giving of himself). We can sometimes say we want to follow Jesus, but bring all these things in tow with us. And when he asks us to surrender them, we walk away sad, focusing our eyes on our possessions and not on Him. It’s important to remember that surrender does not mean death or loss of everything. It means we very well may get all those things back (now that Jesus is Lord over them), and potentially more! And it means we very likely will get a greater reward in heaven.

Songs for reflection: