“What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit their very self?” – Luke 9:25

As a fresh graduate, I was offered a dream job at a prestigious firm with a salary beyond my expectations. The money and the glamour of the career was a temptation my mentoring professor urged me to accept. He had also taken a similar job early in his life and his recognition in the industry was unquestionable.

       Ironically, it was his reference to himself that made me pause. I thought about how he had dedicated his heart and passion to his craft and how he had risen up the ranks through hard work, plenty of overtime, and his will to be the best. As a consequence, he was unmarried. Unable to sustain long-term relationships due to his lifestyle, he was alone with no one to share his amassed fortune.

       Declining the job came easy after realizing that love and family were not something God would’ve wanted me to sacrifice in exchange for riches. I am not the best in what I do now and I will have to settle for being good at it. But I will definitely not settle until I am the best wife and the best mother to my family, the two responsibilities God gave me to prioritize above all else. Eleanore Teo (elyo.lee@gmail.com)

Reflection: Ask yourself before making any important decisions: Will it affect anyone important in your life?

God, grant me the wisdom to discern and devote my time to what will make me truly rich.

Servant of God Sylvester of Assisi, pray for us.

Every moral choice we make is between life and death. Remember that a slow creeping death is still death. It is important that we form our consciences well and develop the habits of a virtuous life so that every decision we make will lead us towards God.

15 Moses said to the people: “Today I have set before you life and prosperity, death and doom. 16 If you obey the commandments of the Lord, your God, which I enjoin on you today, loving him, and walking in his ways, and keeping his commandments, statutes and decrees, you will live and grow numerous, and the Lord, your God, will bless you in the land you are entering to occupy. 17 If, however, you turn away your hearts and will not listen, but are led astray and adore and serve other gods, 18 I tell you now that you will certainly perish; you will not have a long life on the land that you are crossing the Jordan to enter and occupy. 19 I call heaven and earth today to witness against you: I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. Choose life, then, that you and your descendants may live, 20 by loving the Lord, your God, heeding his voice, and holding fast to him. For that will mean life for you, a long life for you to live on the land which the Lord swore he would give to your fathers Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.”

1 Blessed the man who follows not the counsel of the wicked nor walks in the way of sinners, nor sits in the company of the insolent, 2 but delights in the law of the Lord and meditates on his law day and night. (R) 3 He is like a tree planted near running water, that yields its fruit in due season, and whose leaves never fade. Whatever he does, prospers. (R) 4 Not so the wicked, not so; they are like chaff which the wind drives away. 6 For the Lord watches over the way of the just, but the way of the wicked vanishes. (R)

What is your cross? What sin or situation do you struggle with constantly? Are you winning or losing the struggle? If it is the latter, then it is time to call upon the grace of the Holy Spirit to help you overcome that sin or temptation. You might even need the help of a spiritual director to guide you in your struggle for a while and help you take control of the situation.

22 Jesus said to his disciples: “The Son of Man must suffer greatly and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests, and the scribes, and be killed and on the third day be raised.” 23 Then he said to all, “If anyone wishes to come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. 24 For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. 25 What profit is there for one to gain the whole world yet lose or forfeit himself?”

think: It is important that we form our consciences well and develop the habits of a virtuous life so that every decision we make will lead us towards God.

READ THE BIBLE IN ONE YEAR 2 & 3 John and Jude

In the year 2010, a movie entitled 127 Hours starring James Franco hit the movie screens. It was about an adventurous young man named Aron Ralston who, on April 25, 2003, went mountain climbing in Utah’s Canyonlands.  He reached a spot where boulders are suspended, wedged between the walls of rock. As he descended, he slipped. Along with him a boulder fell and fortunately (or unfortunately) arrested his fall but pinned his right arm against the canyon wall, trapping him. He yelled for help but to no avail. After more than five days (127 hours to be exact), he decided to do the unthinkable. With his pocket knife, he began to slowly cut through his right arm to extricate himself from the boulder and from a slow and painful death. Today, Aron Ralston goes around sharing his inspirational story with a stump of his right arm as testimony.

       Listen to the words of Jesus: “For whoever would save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will save it. What profit does he show who gains the whole world and destroys himself in the process?” Jesus is not legitimizing self-hatred. Jesus is saying we must be more than willing to do an act of spiritual amputation rather than persist in sin.

       In the writings of St. Augustine, sin is described as satisfying our longing for the eternal God with something less than God. God has placed in the human heart an ache for the Infinite. Sin is trying to fill this infinite vacuum with the finite. Bishop Fulton Sheen defined sin as trying to satisfy our thirst for the Infinite from the teacup of finite satisfactions. Holiness is preferring the whole, permanent and irreplaceable over the partial, temporary and replaceable.

       Isn’t that what Aron Ralston did? Faced with mortal danger, Ralston’s life flashed in front of him. In a dream or premonition, he saw a vision of his unborn son. This gave him the will to endure the pain of mutilating his own arm to free himself for the life and freedom he now enjoys. Fr. Joel Jason

REFLECTION QUESTIONS: With our hands, feet and eyes, we can soothe our ache for the eternal with the ephemeral. Where do your hands, feet and eyes bring you?

Fill me, Lord, and satisfy my longing for You. Help me to let go of those things which lead me to sin.