1 Peter 1:18-25 / Mark 10:32-45
The first step to eliminating a nation is to erase the people’s memory.
Begin by destroying its books, its culture, its language and its history.
Then write new books, create a new culture, invent a new history.
Before long, that nation will begin to forget who they and what they are.
In time to come, it will be a forgotten nation and a forgotten people.
By and large, the struggle of humanity is the struggle of memory against forgetting.
The 1st reading urges us to remember the ransom that was paid to free us from the useless way of life that we knew before.
That ransom was paid in the precious blood of Jesus Christ who is the sinless Lamb of God.
We remember by being obedient to the truth and living our lives with love.
Everything is passing, the grass withers, the flower falls, the seats of the powerful and mighty rise and fall.
But the Word of God remains forever, and the Good News of salvation reminds us of God’s love for us.
Let us always remember the ransom that was paid to save us, and let us always remember who paid that ransom.