Receiving a hundred times more

Br. MichaelDavide Semeraro

I listened to the words of Jesus in the Gospel of Mark: “Amen, I say to you, there is no one who has given up house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands for my sake and for the sake of the Gospel who will not receive a hundred times more....” and I have immediately related them to the life of my parish priest who proclaimed them from the altar: he is a priest with a heart of gold, always ready to give himself to others, and in recent years he has been forced to reduce his ministry because he has been struck by a devastating tumour. How can I relate the sickness of this man, as of so many others, in this “hundred times more?”

B.F.

Illness is part of the journey of every man and woman: we are mortal and therefore vulnerable to illness. The word of the Gospel is not to be understood in terms of punishment or reward, and even less in terms of compensation or damage. A hundredfold is about maturing in self-giving to the point of having a view of life in all situations full of gratitude, goodness and admiration. In this sense, the parish priest with a “heart of gold” lives this hundredfold not because he is exempt from misfortune, but because he is evangelically capable of continuing to give his life, finding his reward in the gift.