Daily Gospel Reflection
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February 18, 2022
Jesus summoned the crowd with his disciples and said to them,
“Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself,
take up his cross, and follow me.
For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it,
but whoever loses his life for my sake
and that of the Gospel will save it.
What profit is there for one to gain the whole world
and forfeit his life?
What could one give in exchange for his life?
Whoever is ashamed of me and of my words
in this faithless and sinful generation,
the Son of Man will be ashamed of
when he comes in his Father’s glory with the holy angels.”
He also said to them,
“Amen, I say to you,
there are some standing here who will not taste death
until they see that the Kingdom of God has come in power.”
I used to become annoyed when my mom reminded me for what felt like the thousandth time, “People’s standards always change, but God’s standards never do.” As much as I tried to ignore her words over the years, I’ve realized that she is right.
In grade school, I tried my hardest to be that super cool girl—the popular one good at everything—perfect grades to perfect hair. I focused on the affirmation of others. I dealt with many insecurities then because I was consistently trying to fulfill other people’s ideas of what I should act like. When I finally started to value myself the way God made me, I became more confident, and my peers began to respect that I wasn’t trying to fit into a mold anymore.
My experience is an example of the message Jesus is giving us in today’s gospel: “What profit is there for one to gain the whole world and forfeit his life?” When we are constantly attempting to please the world and gain its attention, we lose sight of what matters and who we are as children of God.
So besides confirming the cliche that it is better to “be yourself,” I think what I learned most through that experience is that we as humans are happier when we don’t define ourselves by what the world thinks of us but by what God thinks of us. It’s something that I still work on today, holding myself to a higher standard that’s worthy of being a daughter of Christ.
Because, as my mom has constantly reminded me, the world will always change what and who it wants you to be, but God’s standards are consistent and unchanging.
Prayer
Father, give us the courage to be faithful to Christ and his words in the midst of our own faithless and sinful generation. May we never be ashamed to be called Christians, servants of the kingdom of God and not of the world.
Saint of the Day
St. Simon was a bishop and martyr who followed Jesus, and may have even been related to him. Simon is not to be confused with Simon-Peter, the disciple who was entrusted by Jesus as leader of the new Church.
The Gospel of Matthew tells of Jesus going to his hometown of Nazareth and how people there were astonished at him because they knew him as the carpenter’s son. “Is not his mother Mary and his brothers James, Joseph, Simon, and Judas? Are his sisters not all with us?” (Mt 13:55). These “siblings” of Jesus may have been cousins (there is no word for “cousin” in Aramaic, hence the designation as brother), or perhaps children of Joseph from a previous marriage.
Simon, in any case, was related to Jesus, and was older by about eight years. He was among the 72 followers of Jesus present at Jesus’ Ascension, and he was one of the followers present when the Spirit descended at Pentecost.
Simon’s brother, St. James the Lesser, was bishop of Jersualem before he was killed for his faith. The disciples unanimously appointed Simon as his successor.
When civil war broke out in Palestine in year 66, Romans destroyed the city. Simon led the Christians to live in a smaller city nearby, called Pella, until the Romans left. The community returned to Jerusalem to live among the ruins of the city, and the faith flourished there, thanks to Simon, and they converted many to follow Christ.
In the Roman persecution, Simon was arrested for being both Christian and of Jewish heritage, and was tortured and crucified. Tradition has it that he was very old—nearly 120—when he was martyred, but that he bore his sufferings with courage that won the admiration of the Roman governor overseeing the persecution.
St. Simon’s relics rest in the reliquary chapel in the Basilica.
St. Simon, you followed your cousin, Jesus, in life and death, pray for us!
Image Credit: Our featured image of St. Simon is in the public domain. Last accessed January 23, 2025 on Wikimedia Commons.
