Release our hold

The texts today from the Roman CatholicLectionary invite us to consider growing in our relationship with Jesus through a change in our attitude and experience. The Gospel from Mark places Jesus on a journey and we as His followers should expect that we journey and change scene and encounter different circumstance and people as we move toward the glory of intimacy with God which gives us dignity and life as proclaimed today in the first letter of Peter. According to Friar Jude Winkler, some Scripture scholars question the authorship of the Letter of Peter because of the quality of the Greek and the nature of the theology. Silvanus, who put the ideas of Peter into Greek was likely responsible for the quality writing. Our assumption that God may not have used a Galilean fisherman to express such a marvelous heritage from God is questioned by Friar Jude as being a fault with our reasoning. The change in our attitude encouraged by this letter goes deeper to the mystery of how we need to be open to share in suffering in the cross carried by Jesus. Our tendency to turn away from personal hardship may be a choice to turn away from greater intimacy with the Shepherd who is inviting us into His ministry. GregO'Meara, S.J. of Creighton University is hopeful that the rich young man who addresses Jesus on the road may not have gone away forever. He reminds us of our experience that God does not give up on us. The events and circumstances of our lives continue to invite us to join His mission. The reflection of Don Schwageron this passage from Mark reminds us that it is not only wealth which we hold onto and thereby chose over Jesus but our habits, passions, privileges and positions are too often placed above the invitation of Jesus to join Him on the journey. With wealth and the other tokens which fill our concerns, it is not so much having them that is the problem as it is holding on to them when our growth to glory invites us to let them go.