BIG DEAL, HUH?

Tuesday of the Twentieth Week in Ordinary Time

Mt 19:23-30

Have you seen the old movie, “Oh, God!”? It is one of my favorites. The Gospel today reminds me of it.

“Oh, God!” featured the veteran actor, George Burns, who played God. In his eighties, most probably when the film was shot, George a.k.a. God wore thick glasses and a funny little hat. A singer-turned-actor, John Denver, for his part played a supermarket employee. One day God appeared to the supermarket employee and commissioned him to spread the message “Think God!”

As the movie progresses, it becomes evident that getting the people take the message seriously is a very difficult task to accomplish. The supermarket employee almost lost his job for doing so.

He complained to God, saying, “Preaching Your word is costing me my job!” God replied (with the naughty smile of old George Burns), “That’s not a bad trade, is it? Lose your job and save the world.”

When Peter reminds the Lord that he and the others left everything, I cannot help but smile. What is everything for Peter? His fishing boat? His trade turned lousy because he could not catch anything even after a whole night of fishing? Everything? Big deal, huh.

But perhaps, it is indeed a big deal for Peter. Perhaps, it is really all that he has. Perhaps, what he leaves behind truly amounts to everything because only that belongs to him.

Peter and the other Eleven make a good trade: lose their job and save the world. But we know that one of them will not persevere. He is Judas Iscariot whom seems to be the most educated among them but the most attached to material things. He will eventually trade his Master for thirty silver pieces. Oh, how riches can hinder one from entering the Kingdom!

The trade we make each day to do God’s will, is it good or bad?

Big deal, huh?

The Lord Jesus already made the best trade to save us. He stripped Himself of His divinity to share in our nature. Big deal? Yeah, big deal!