Sunday, September 16, 2018
(Twenty-fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time)

If you want to live well, seek the well-being of others.

If you do nothing for the well-being of others, you will be successful according to worldly standards, you will have power, riches, and dominion over others, you will look after your own interests  with no regard for those of other people. Remember, however, that: “whoever wishes to save his life will lose it” (Mark 8:35).
If you care for the well-being of others, you must place yourself in a position of radical departure from the powers and dominions of the world. In other words, you must demonstrate, with your own life that you seek the welfare of others before your own. You must seek unity, equality, and respect for all. Furthermore, it is not enough to side with the poor but, more importantly, you must become one of them.
Thus, “whoever loses his life for my [Christ’s] sake and that of the gospel will save it” (Mark 8:35).

If you care for the well-being of others, you will not only expose the “weapons” of an evil  world, but, most importantly, you will demonstrate that life is more powerful than death.

(By Jesús A. Diez Canseco)