Loss Is Gain

Loss is gain.  When we lose ourselves in love, we gain since we find our true selves in love.  Through love our lives are saved.  God invites us into love and thus into the glory of God.  

Jesus taught us, "Whoever wishes to save his life will lose it; whoever loses his life for My sake and for the sake of the Gospel will save it."*  If we cling to what we have, we lose it.  If we lose it, we are saved.  

By insisting on our own ideas that we think up without the help of God, we are turning our backs on our true selves.  If we follow only our own plans, we lose our lives.  

If we let go of what we think we have, then our hands are free.  With open hands and hearts, we can accept what God wants to give us.  As we lose what we had been imagining on our own, we save our lives.  

It's pointless to pursue our own agenda but not become our true selves.  Jesus continued, "What profit is there for one to gain the whole world and forfeit his life?"**  

In sacrifice we find our true selves.  Today's first reading brings us back to Abraham.  Since he was willing to lose Isaac, his only son, Abraham gained so much more, becoming the father of many descendants.***    

As we sacrifice ourselves, we become our true selves who we will not fully see until Heaven.  What we shall be has not yet been revealed.  When it is revealed, we shall be like Him, since we will see Him as He is.****  

Then we will see Jesus in His glory.  Today in the Gospel we heard of how Peter, James and John saw Jesus in His glory as He was transfigured.  They saw Him in His glory; we wait to see Him in His glory.  

When we see Him in His glory, we will be like Him.  Until then, as we sing here at the hermitage, we wait for You, God, to transform our lowly bodies into glorious copies of Your own.  

We wait, and yet in a certain sense, this transformation can begin now.  If we lose ourselves by living in love now, we find our true selves.  God gives us His love so we can share in His glory.  

We are saved by giving up our lives through love.  With the love of God poured into our hearts,***** we are empowered to die to ourselves and so be saved.  Through the love of God we are saved.  

* Mark 8:35 

** Mark 8:36 

*** Genesis 22:1-18 

**** 1 John 3:2 

***** Romans 5:5