Twentieth Tuesday of Ordinary Time

And everyone who has given up houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or lands for the sake of my name will receive a hundred times more, and will inherit eternal life.

When we sacrifice for the Lord, we are always repaid. Perhaps not in this life, but certainly in the next. God does not forget our sacrifices, great and small, and as long as we speak and act virtuously, then God will remember our good words and works. When we give things up for God we imitated the ultimate sacrifice that Christ made for us upon the cross. We can never truly repay Jesus for his passion and death, but in so far as we mirror his sacrificial actions, God will see his son within us and his righteous anger at our sins and failings will be transformed into merciful love.

What have we given up for God? What are we willing to give up now? Are we open to the sacrifices that God is asking of us?

O Lord, you have sacrificed so much for us. Grant us the grace to imitate your sacrifice in all that we think, say, and do.

Amen.