Feast of Katharine Drexel
Mk 10: 17-27
As he was setting out on a journey, a man ran up and knelt before him, and asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?”Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good but God alone. You know the commandments: ‘You shall not murder; You shall not commit adultery; You shall not steal; You shall not bear false witness; You shall not defraud; Honor your father and mother.’”
He said to him, “Teacher, I have kept all these since my youth.” Jesus, looking at him, loved him and said, “You lack one thing; go, sell what you own, and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.” When he heard this, he was shocked and went away grieving, for he had many possessions.
Then Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, “How hard it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God!” And the disciples were perplexed at these words. But Jesus said to them again, “Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.”
They were greatly astounded and said to one another, “Then who can be saved?” Jesus looked at them and said, “For mortals it is impossible, but not for God; for God all things are possible.”
New Revised Standard Version, copyright 1989, by the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved. USCCB approved http://www.usccb.org/bible/approved-translations
Follow Me
In response to the man who excitedly asks Jesus, “Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus “loved him, and said to him, “Sell what you have, and give to the poor; and you will have treasure in heaven; then come, follow me.”
Katherine Drexel, whose feast we celebrate today, did just that, in a literal way. With the substantial inheritance her parents left her, Katherine joined the Sisters of Mercy and then founded her own order, the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament, which continues to work in schools and missions serving Black and Native American communities in the United States, and with the rural poor in Haiti.
On this day, what can I sell—literally or figuratively, large or small? On this day, how can I follow Jesus—in however great or humble a way?
—Fr. David Mastrangelo, S.J. serves as Director of Jesuit Mission and Identity at Christ the King Jesuit High School, Chicago.
Prayer
Take, Lord, receive all my liberty, my memory, my understanding, my entire will. All that I have and receive come from you. To you I return them to be used wholly according to your will. Give me only your love and grace for with these I am rich enough and need nothing more.
—St. Ignatius Loyola, click here for a downloadable prayer card