Saint for the day: Cyril of Alexandria (376?-444)

Scripture Readings for today’s Liturgy:

Amos 2:6-10, 13-16     –     Psalm 50     –     Matthew 8:18-22

Most of us a familiar with the Gospel passage, “Martha, Martha, you are worried about many things. Only one thing is necessary…” (Luke 10:41)

Today’s Gospel presents us with choices around the theme, “Come, follow me!” And so we ask ourselves: “What does it mean to follow Jesus?”

Most of the time the answer is shifted to those who follow Jesus as religious or priests. But the Gospels are proclaimed to all people and everyone must come to that point of making a choice of whether to follow Jesus or go back home to do whatever. The irony, however, is that even those who decide not to follow Jesus today, will still have to make that decision somewhere along the way.

Not everybody is called to be a hermit, or a missionary, or enter religious life but all of us are called to follow Jesus. So what’s the bottom line here?

It all comes down to priorities and the reality that “this is the ‘day of the Lord’ and the only moment of salvation.” None of us knows when we will come to the ultimate moment of salvation. We all have stories of loved ones who died suddenly like my own brother. He had just called my sister to make plans for how the four of us would all get together for a family holiday and then dropped dead the next day! So, just for today, we are all called to follow Jesus as best we can. The following prayer of St. Ignatius Loyola is a good prayer for us to say:

“Take, O Lord, and receive my entire liberty, my memory, my understanding, and my whole will. All that I am and all that I possess you have given me. I surrender it all to you to be disposed of according to your will.  Give me only your love and your grace – with these I will be rich enough and will desire nothing more. Amen!”