Note: On Tuesdays and some Sundays, you can find me at Your Daily Tripod, owned by my friend TonyD. A longer version of the post below appears there.
“We have given up everything and followed you.” (Mark 10:28)
Peter surely believed that. Of course, he still had his wife, not to mention his mother-in-law. He still had his brother Andrew, and his frenemies, the sons of Zebedee and the others. And yet—he had given up so much. His livelihood. His time.
And yet… Peter would give up so much more. His self-loathing for denying Jesus three times. His literalness. His way of attempting to take charge without being a servant leader as the Master was. His very life.
Consider just a few examples of other saints who thought they had given up plenty… and then were called to give more:
- Katherine Drexel had considered the religious life in her teens, but then decided she couldn’t part with the luxuries befitting a Drexel, regardless of the philanthropy she and her family had shown. But when she asked the pope to send missionaries to the United States to help Native Americans, he suggested she become a missionary herself. She prayed over it… then followed.
- Frances Xavier Cabrini, frail though she was, believed she had a vocation to be a missionary to China. The pope, cognizant of the dire physical and spiritual conditions of Italians who had recently moved to the United States, told her she was not to go to the East, but to the West. She prayed over it… then followed.
- Marie Guyart was widowed with a twelve-year-old son, living with family members when she felt the call to become an Ursuline nun. She prayed over it… then followed, even though her heart must have been heavy as her son shouted outside the convent for his mother’s return.
Sometimes, what God asks of us seems so huge as to be almost unbearable—almost being the critical word, of course, for with Him, the large and the small are possible. We delude ourselves when we get too comfortable in our faith and believe we are ready for whatever life throws at us. Without Him, girding up the loins of our minds is next to impossible. With Him, we can triumph over anything.
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