SPEAKER_00: Today in the gospel, Jesus gives us one of the hardest spiritual lessons.
SPEAKER_00: Peter turns around, sees John, and immediately asks, Lord, what about him?
SPEAKER_00: What about him?
SPEAKER_00: Three words.
SPEAKER_00: And if we're honest, we ask them all the time, Lord, what about their life?
SPEAKER_00: What about their marriage, their success, their ministry, their life, their health, their opportunities, their blessings, everything that they have, their path?
SPEAKER_00: Jesus gives one of the shortest and most powerful responses in Scripture.
SPEAKER_00: What concern is it of yours?
SPEAKER_00: You follow me.
SPEAKER_00: In other words, stop looking sideways.
SPEAKER_00: Look at me.
SPEAKER_00: Because comparison is one of the great thieves of the spiritual life.
SPEAKER_00: We do this all the time.
SPEAKER_00: It steals peace, it steals gratitude, it steals mission, it blinds us of our own calling.
SPEAKER_00: Peter had just been told he would die a martyr.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus had already revealed that suffering awaited him.
SPEAKER_00: And Peter immediately looks at John.
SPEAKER_00: Well, what about him?
SPEAKER_00: Well, is he going to suffer too?
SPEAKER_00: Will his path be easier?
SPEAKER_00: Will his story be different?
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus says, That is not of your concern.
SPEAKER_00: Your concern is that you follow me.
SPEAKER_00: What a word for our age, because we live in the age of comparison.
SPEAKER_00: Everyone is looking sideways.
SPEAKER_00: Social media, success, followers, money, things, what vacations we go on, titles.
SPEAKER_00: Even in spiritual life, why is their family doing better?
SPEAKER_00: Why is their parish growing?
SPEAKER_00: Why do they have these gifts and these blessings?
SPEAKER_00: Why is their cross lighter than mine?
SPEAKER_00: And Christ keeps saying, What concern is that of yours?
SPEAKER_00: You follow me.
SPEAKER_00: Because God writes different stories.
SPEAKER_00: Peter receives a cross, John receives longevity, one dies crucified, the other one dies of old age.
SPEAKER_00: Different missions, same holiness.
SPEAKER_00: And then the first reading becomes extraordinary because we meet Paul in Rome.
SPEAKER_00: Think about where his story began.
SPEAKER_00: In Acts, it started with frightened apostles hiding in the upper room.
SPEAKER_00: Now it ends with Paul in the capital of the empire, proclaiming Christ openly.
SPEAKER_00: The gospel reaches Rome.
SPEAKER_00: The mission moved forward.
SPEAKER_00: And look at Paul, he's in chains, underground, restricted.
SPEAKER_00: Yet Scripture says with complete assurance and without hindrance he proclaimed the kingdom of God.
SPEAKER_00: Wow, the irony.
SPEAKER_00: Paul is chained, the gospel is not.
SPEAKER_00: His body is bound, but the word is free.
SPEAKER_00: The entire empire could limit his movement, but it could not stop his mission.
SPEAKER_00: And maybe that's a final lesson before Pentecost.
SPEAKER_00: Your circumstances do not determine your mission.
SPEAKER_00: Paul had chains and still evangelized.
SPEAKER_00: Peter had a cross and still followed.
SPEAKER_00: John had waiting and still remained faithful.
SPEAKER_00: Different roads, same Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Some people spend their whole lives saying, What about him?
SPEAKER_00: And they never lived their own vocation, never really truly embraced their own mission, never carry their own cross, never become the saint they were meant to become.
SPEAKER_00: The saints stopped looking sideways.
SPEAKER_00: They fixed their eyes on Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe today Jesus says that to all of us.
SPEAKER_00: Stop comparing, stop measuring, stop looking at everyone else.
SPEAKER_00: Follow me.
SPEAKER_00: Because at the end of life, God will not ask why you were not Peter or Paul or John.
SPEAKER_00: He will ask, did you become the person I created you to be?
SPEAKER_00: There will only be one of you for all eternity.
SPEAKER_00: Did you follow me?
SPEAKER_00: And if you can't answer yes to that, then that's everything.
SPEAKER_00: That's the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: That's the beauty of a relationship with the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Don't compare yourselves with anyone.
SPEAKER_00: Stop measuring.
SPEAKER_00: Fix your eyes on Christ and follow him.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.