Wednesday of the Eighth Week in Ordinary Time
Imagine your relief when, after having been captured by enemy soldiers in war time (or debt collectors in the ancient world), you heard that someone was ransoming you: through the gracious gift of this other person, you were going to be set free. In the ancient debtor’s case, that gift may have been a sizeable sum of money. In the modern or the ancient case, it may be a trade of the prisoner for someone of high value to the captors. In any case, once freed, wouldn’t you want to know who had set you free, who had ransomed you?
And in the case of someone who ransomed you by giving up their own free life, would that person’s memory not remain with you every day of your newly freed life? Our Lord speaks to the apostles who are filled with indignation at the sons of Zebedee, and tells them, “The Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.” (Mark 10:45) If we have been ransomed, what rivalry will gain our attention more than the recollection of our Redeemer? Belonging as we do to the One who purchased our freedom at the price of His own blood, what should be our response? What should be our focus, the object of our imaginations, our motive and drive? What should our life look like? “Love one another intensely from a pure heart.” (1 Peter 1:22) Enjoying our freedom, and seeing those around us whom Christ has redeemed, let us conform our redeemed hearts to the heart of the Redeemer. Let us love one another as He has loved us: in service, and humility, to the end.