Tuesday of the Twentieth Week in Ordinary Time
During my tertianship, a fellow tertian shared a story about his elderly father, who feels blessed because his son is a priest and his daughter is a religious sister. The father lives in a small village, where he enjoys some respect and status due to his children's roles as a priest and a nun. But, the story takes a turn when other villagers challenge the assumption that the old man is truly blessed. They question whether this means that everyone else's lives are less blessed simply because their sons and daughters are living ordinary lives as regular people.
The Gospel story we hear today continues the old question of perfection: whether the call to be perfect is meant for a special category of followers, especially priests and religious, or if it applies to all believers (members of the Church) without any discrimination. Suppose we assume that perfection is reserved only for priests and religious. In that case, the father of my fellow tertian has a correct intuition that his household is blessed because his son and daughters are part of the elite disciples who are striving for perfection. In the Gospel today, Jesus assures those who left property and family members for his sake that the loss they suffer will be repaid in the great eschatological renewal. If we look at the list of what leaving involves, it ranges from the house, siblings, parents, and also children. Jesus' invitation to perfection applies to all believers (all members of the Church), in the sense that salvation is the gift that comes from Jesus. It applies to all believers in the sense that reliance upon wealth and security often erodes their trust in God and they depend less on God. So those who choose to cling to their wealth and pursue family life must come to terms with the requirement of the Kingdom of God, that is, to have radical trust in God alone.