Daily Mass Gospel Reflection - Crucifying the Ego

Word on Fire Ministry ^ | Bishop Robert Barron

[MurphsLaw]

Seventh Week of Easter

John 21:20-25

Friends, in today’s Gospel,
when Peter asks about the destiny of the beloved disciple,
Jesus says:
"What if I want him to remain until I come?
What concern is it of yours? You follow me."
Here at the close of John’s Gospel we can take this command to heart.
What does following Jesus involve?

True conversion—the metanoia that Jesus talks about—
is so much more than moral reform, though it includes that.
It has to do with a complete shift in consciousness,
a whole new way of looking at one’s life.
Jesus offered a teaching that must have been gut-wrenching to his first-century audience:
"If any want to become my followers,
let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me."

His listeners knew what the cross meant:
a death in utter agony,
nakedness, and humiliation.
They didn’t think of the cross automatically in religious terms, as we do.
They knew it in all of its awful power.
Unless you crucify your ego, you cannot be my follower, Jesus says.
This move—this terrible move—
has to be the foundation of the spiritual life.

[MurphsLaw]

+++ Peter turned and saw the disciple
following whom Jesus loved,
the one who had also reclined upon
his chest during the supper
and had said, “Master, who is the
one who will betray you?”
When Peter saw him, he said to
Jesus, “Lord, what about him?”
Jesus said to him, “What if I want
him to remain until I come?
What concern is it of yours?
You follow me.”
So the word spread among the
brothers that that disciple would
not die.
But Jesus had not told him that he
would not die,
just “What if I want him to remain
until I come?
What concern is it of yours?”

It is this disciple who testifies to
these things
and has written them, and we know
that his testimony is true.
There are also many other things
that Jesus did,
but if these were to be described
individually,
I do not think the whole world would
contain the books
that would be written.+++

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Amen.

Overcoming the World: 1 John 5:1-4

“Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the Father loves the child born of Him. By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and follow His commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments; and His commandments are not burdensome. For whoever has been born of God overcomes the world; and this is the victory that has overcome the world: our faith.”

[ebb tide]

Bishop Robert Barron Criticizes “Preoccupation with Pelvic Issues”

Bishop Robert Barron has said he does not believe the church should seek to overturn the U.S. Supreme Court’s Obergefell decision that legalized marriage equality in the United States. Barron, an Auxiliary Bishop for the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, also criticized an obsessive focus on “pelvic issues” because it diminishes Christianity and undermines evangelization.

[MurphsLaw]

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