The Logic of losing ones life for the sake of Jesus

GOSPEL THOUGHTS

18^th Week – Friday

Gospel – Matthew 16: 24-28

 

The Logic of losing ones life for the sake of Jesus

 Whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.

 1) The idea of losing life

•  Whenever we think about losing life, the first thing that comes to our mind is the death
•  Death is the end of bodily life on the this Earth, and through the process of death we lose our life 
•  This is the literal meaning of the concept of losing of ones life. 

 2) Jesus goes beyond the literal meaning of losing of ones life

•  Whenever Jesus speaks of losing of ones life, in the context of following, Jesus goes beyond the literal meaning and losing of life has a deeper meaning
•  In fact in order to gain something of value we need to lose something. Only when we are ready to lose something we are able to gain something. 
•  So in accepting the Challenge of following Christ, one has to lose many of the things, connected to the very instinct of living. Losing such things would be equal to life itself.

 3) The type of Life we need to lose

•  Basically Human beings are selfish. This selfishness makes the human beings to posses many things. Unless one loses his life of selfishness, one can not follow Jesus 

 4) We need to lose our life which consist or heavily depends on the following things

•  We need to lose our life which is built on selfishness
•  We need to lose our life, which is based on greed, pride, jealousy, gossip, revenge, desire, pleasure, and other worldly things 
•  We need to lose our life which craves for popularity, authority, position, money, luxurious life, comfort zone, worldly pomp and glory, and other evil desires 

 5)Lose in order to Gain

•  Here losing is always with the purpose.
•  We lose something, in order to gain something
•  Here it is Jesus whom we want to gain. That's is why we need to lose the life which goes against the spirit of Jesus
•  In simple words, lose those aspect of your life, which are dear to sin/Satan/Devil.
•  When we lose those aspect of our lives which are dear to sin/Satan, automatically we gain the life which is dear to Jesus and to Holiness

 6) Saints lost many of the aspect of their life, in order to gain Jesus

•  Some willingly allowed to lose their families ties to gain Jesus 
•  Some willingly allowed to lose their worldly life, power, position, authority to gain Jesus 
•  Some willingly allowed to lose their native place, their culture, affinity, language to gain Jesus

 7) The Challenge is not easy

•  Losing some of the aspects of our life for the sake of Jesus is not easy. It is really challenging and needs lots of self discipline and commitment
•  If it was easy, all would have opted easily to lose some of these things inorder to gain Jesus 
•  All good things are not easy, and easy things need not be good. 
•  Losing ones life directly touches our being and it affects us. So unless we are ready to work on ourselves we can not follow Jesus 

 8) Losing of life, directly affects us

•  This is not something external of us. It is very much connected to our being. 
•  Losing of life can not be done by some one else for our sake. We ourselves have to go through it. 
•  Someone else cannot lose his life for our sake. Only we ourselves have to undergo this process. 
•  That is why it is challenging and demanding and many do not dare to opt for it.

 9) Am I ready to lose my life?

•  If yes, which aspect of your life you feel you need to lose in order to gain Jesus???

  God bless you and your family. Praying for you and your dear ones.

Fr Maxim D’Souza

Jeppu Seminary

Mangalore