In our Gospel reading today from Mark 8, Jesus asks the question, “What profit is there for one to gain the whole world and forfeit his life?” So many today are striving for riches, potentially at the cost of their souls. Sure doesn’t sound like a fair trade-off to me. If you do a cost/benefit analysis and find that the cost is losing your soul, hopefully you will see that the cost is far too high to offset any benefits that may be gained while here on the planet. Because eternity is a lot longer than the time we’ll be spending here.
In the first reading today from Genesis 11, we read about the Tower of Babel. It’s an interesting story. The people of earth all spoke the same language and decided to build a tower that reached to the sky. God didn’t take kindly to this, so he confused their language so that they could no longer communicate with each other. He also scattered them all over the world. So, what’s the moral of this story?
I think the reason that God was so upset was that the people said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the sky, and so make a name for ourselves.” In other words, the tower was to glorify themselves. They weren’t thinking of God at all. It was all about them. This should be a great lesson for us. When all we’re looking to do is make a name for ourselves, to glorify ourselves, it will not end well. We should be doing all we do for the glory of God.
Father, forgive us for the many times when we want to glorify ourselves. Help us to remember that in all things we should glorify You. Amen.
0 comments