If a bank offers a 10% return on money, people will fight their way into it. To think that if someone donated $1000 to a bank and at the end of a year it would grow to $1100, excites people. When we invest our money, we do so with the expectation of returns.
Jesus offers us returns that no bank can ever dream of matching. He talks about this to Peter today (Mark 10:28-31).
Jesus had just warned the rich that it is difficult for them to enter the Kingdom of God. This got Peter thinking. If rich people had a hard time getting the Kingdom of God, what about poor people like himself and the other disciples?
“Peter began to say to Jesus, ‘We have given up everything and followed you.’”
Notice Peter didn’t get to his question. He just “began” to address Jesus. Anticipating Peter’s question, Jesus said:
“Amen, I say to you, there is no one who has given up house or brothers or sisters or mother or father, or children or lands for my sake and for the sake of the Gospel who will not receive a hundred times more now in this present age…”
A hundredfold! Was Jesus exaggerating? The only time money grows that fast is when someone bets on a race horse that has 100:1 odds on it, and wins. Peter must have been stunned by what Jesus said. And, looking carefully, we note that Jesus was talking about “this present age,” not heaven. Jesus elaborated:
“…houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and eternal life in the world to come.”
If we could interview St. Peter now and ask whether or not Jesus’ “hundredfold” promise came true, what would he say? What was his life after the coming of the Holy Spirit in comparison to his days as a fisherman? We know that there were about “120” people in the Upper Room when the Holy Spirit came. Now that’s a lot of brothers, sisters, mothers, and children, isn’t it? And after the Pentecost sermon, we read in Acts of the Apostles that “3000” people were added to the Christian community that day. There’s “3000” more members of the family that Peter was part of! And I’ll bet that at least “1000” of these owned houses. Do you think Peter, as head of the Church, was welcome in any of these houses? Of course he was. People would have fought to have Peter over for dinner! Being part of the early Christian community was the richest of all lifestyles.
Then Jesus slipped in the part that no one wanted to hear: “with persecutions.” Peter certainly had his share of these mixed in with the abundant life he experienced in Church. Jesus ended his “hundredfold” talk by citing the “ice cream on the cake,” eternal life forever in the age to come.
We see a foreshadowing of this teaching in today’s reading from Sirach (35:1-12):
“For the Lord is one who always repays, and he will give back to you sevenfold.”
As each day unfolds, we offer ourselves, our goods, our time, and our comfort to Jesus. Do you think that even the smallest act of kindness we render doesn’t make it into heaven’s “records book?” Realizing that each moment of our lives affords us the opportunity to do small things—prayers, kindnesses, sacrifices—for Jesus, we know that each of these will bring a hundredfold return in the present age and the age to come.
“Offer to God praise as your sacrifice” (Ps 50:14).
