Ecclesiasticus 35:1-12 / Mark 10:28-31
To make sacrifices and to give up what we are entitled to or what is rightfully ours are not words we would like to hear.
Because the human tendency is to be possessive and to hoard more than we need.
And we rebel at the idea of giving up what is ours and to even make sacrifices for the sake of others.
So in the gospel, we heard Peter asking Jesus: What about us? We have left everything and followed you.
So what was Peter and the rest of the disciples going to get for all they have given up?
Maybe we should ask ourselves: for all that we gave up and sacrificed for the Lord, what did we get? How were we rewarded? (If ever we were rewarded!)
The 1st reading exhorts us to make our sacrifices cheerfully, because just as the Lord God has given us, so we too must be able to give up what is even rightfully ours.
It continues by saying that a virtuous man's sacrifice is acceptable, and its memorial will not be forgotten.
But what we should not forget is that it is God who first made the sacrifice.
He sacrificed His only Son to save us. All our sacrifices amount to nothing compared with that.
We can only offer a sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving, and be generous to others just as the Lord is generous to us.