Today we are faced with the cost of discipleship, but we are also comforted by the promise of the providence of God. Baptism is for us both death and life. Through it we enter into Christ’s death and we die to lives of selfishness and sin. Through it we rise with Christ to a new life freed from everything that previously held us down. As glorious as this new life might be, it requires death to our old ways of living, and this is always difficult.

The cost of discipleship cuts right to the core of our beings, it lays bare the very structures of kinship. Baptism recreates us as children of God; through it we are given a new life and born into a new family. The bonds of discipleship are now even stronger than the bonds of blood. Discipleship requires our very lives. As disciples we can no longer put ourselves first. We must be willing to spend ourselves and to be spent, to serve others in the day to day unfolding of life. We may find such commitment very demanding, but that is part of the cost of discipleship. God promises that if we lose our lives in this way, we will really gain them. If we are unselfish in the way we share ourselves with others, we will be enriched through our generosity. If we spend ourselves and are spent in our service of others we will be filled with blessings unimaginable.

© Dianne Bergant CSA