Variety: Mark 10v29-31

²⁹ ‘Truly I tell you,’ Jesus replied, ‘no one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for me and the gospel ³⁰ will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present age: homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and fields – along with persecutions – and in the age to come eternal life. ³¹ But many who are first will be last, and the last first.’  (Mark 10:29-31)

Relinquishment as a call and a gift means giving up prestige and privilege, learning to listen and to accept criticism, and learning how to use our power differently and ultimately to share our power. At the very least our task as non-poor is to share the power available to us—our resources of wealth, education, influence, and access—with those who have been denied these things. This is not charity or noblesse oblige. It is a fundamental letting go to allow the very structures that benefit us to be transformed….

The way of relinquishment is the lifelong process of removing the obstacles to loving and just relationships with our neighbours on this earth and of moving toward more genuine community among all of God’s children and indeed among all of earth’s creatures and elements, the kind of sisterhood and brotherhood envisioned by Jesus.  As we help remove the obstacles to the liberation of others, we are simultaneously removing obstacles to our own liberation…. 

We find ourselves invited by Jesus to be fools. Is it really possible that what is given up will be returned a hundredfold? Can we believe that as we lose ourselves, we will find ourselves? Jesus, who renounces his claim on all things, is free to enjoy all things as gift. Utterly foolish. Impractical. Subversive. Even dangerous.

We can neutralize the challenge and promise of Jesus by elevating him into the realm of perfection, a realm seemingly far beyond our reach. Or we can ponder his way of living in the world and attempt to follow him, fools though we would be. 

Richar Rohr