It is important that Christ specifies that the very things given up will be replaced in this present age a hundred times by the very things sacrificed initially. The list given by Mark is not some bonanza of good things. Each category represents some crucial element in human life: mothers, brothers and sisters, a house, lands. What is important is that each comes back- as a gift- in the context of that community of believers where each member cares for the other and is in turn cared for by all. Wondrous to tell, this constituted the gradual but true beginning of the Kingdom of God on earth- already in those days of Christ's presence on earth.
The history of the Church is the continuation of this gradual building up of the Body of Christ. Our own vocation occupies a special place in this history, for our lives unfold in a community to which we are committed for life and whose members in a sense belong to one another in a relationship of mutual dedication.
Photograph by Brother Brian. Reflection by Father Gabriel.