Jesus said that not only must He suffer,

but those who follow Him must also walk the road of suffering.

＊＊＊ 1st Reading ＊＊＊

James 2:14-24, 26

 What good is it,

My bro­thers and sisters, to profess faith without showing works? Such faith has no power to save you.   If a brother or sister is in need of clothes or food   and one of you says, “May things go well for you; be warm and satisfied,” without attending to their material needs, what good is that?   So it is for faith without deeds: it is totally dead.

 Say to whoever challenges you, “You have faith and I have good deeds; show me your faith apart from actions and I, for my part, will show you my faith in the way I act.”   Do you believe there is one God? Well enough, but do not forget that the demons also believe and tremble with fear!

You foolish one, do you have to be convinced that faith without deeds is useless?  Think of our father Abra­ham. Was he not justified by the act of offering his son Isaac on the altar?   So you see, his faith was active along with his deeds and became perfect by what he did.  The word of Scripture was thus fulfilled, Abraham believed in God so he was considered a righteous person and he was called the friend of God.

 So you see, a person is justified by works and not by faith alone. So, just as the body is dead without its spirit, so faith, without deeds is also dead.

 

＊＊＊＊ Gospel ＊＊＊＊  

Mark 8:34 – 9:1

 Then Jesus called the peo­ple and his disciples and said, “If you want to follow me, deny yourself, take up your cross and follow me.  For if you choose to save your life, you will lose it; and if you lose your life for my sake and for the sake of the Gospel, you will save it.

What good is it to gain the whole world but destroy your­self?   There is nothing you can give to recover your life. I tell you: If anyone is ashamed of me and of my words among this adulterous and sinful people, the Son of Man will also be ashamed of him when he comes in the Glory of his Father with the holy angels.”

And he went on to say, “Truly I tell you, there are some here who will not die before they see the kingdom of God coming with power.”

 

 Gospel Reflection：

Bunch of Losers

Rene’ Girard, a cultural anthropologist whose research led him to believe in the centrality of Christ and his Gospel, comments that the Gospel (and consequently Christian faith) can only fulfil itself by losing out in this world.in other words, Christians are called to be a bunch of losers – just as their Master was a colossal failure in the eyes of the world. This must give us pause.

It is easier for us to be evangelized by the worldly gospel and take after the mundane ways of running parishes and ministries, by focusing on success, fame, honor.

If everyone speaks well of us and we are universally loved, we need to stop on our tracks and ask ourselves: Am I really living the Gospel the way it should be lived?(cf. LK 6:26).

For , though we are in the world, we are called upon to live by the norms of another world and witness to it, which would necessitate that we lose our worldly lives for the sake of Him who alone matters.