Daily Mass Gospel Reflection- Following the Right Way

Word on Fire Ministry ^ | .5.27.23 | Bishop Robert Barron

[MurphsLaw]

SEVENTH SATURDAY OF LENT
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: he must deny himself
and take up his cross daily 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.+++