Deuteronomy 4:32-40 / Matthew 16:24-28
Our experiences in life are mostly with people and with the events that happen around us.
Nonetheless there are also spiritual experiences when we get an enlightenment or a deep internal stillness that we know is not fabricated by ourselves.
Those kind of experiences can be termed as experiences of God and usually there is a message for us in that experience.
In the 1st reading, Moses recounted for the people how God had revealed and spoken to them.
Their experience is God is beyond their own fabrication and as God spoke and revealed Himself to them, He also gave them laws and commandments so that the people will know how to relate with God.
In the gospel, Jesus gave the requirements of being His disciple, or what is often called, the cost of discipleship.
So if we really want to follow Jesus, then we have to renounce ourselves and take up our cross and follow Him.
And that might mean even putting our needs aside and make sacrifices for others without thinking of gaining any benefit for ourselves.
That would sound difficult and challenging especially when we are so used to thinking of ourselves and having things our way and even making others give way to us.
But for all that we might gain, it will be a gain in vain because we cannot offer what we gain in exchange for our lives.
But when we lose our lives for Jesus, what we will gain will be a revelation of God's love for us. It is a love that we will gain not just in this world but also in the world to come.