Saturday of the 7th
Week of Easter
May 23, 2015 8:30am
Mother Teresa created a list of
simple ways that people could live a good spiritual life.
It began with the expected
recommendations to pray, to read Scripture, and to do good to others.
The last recommendation may seem
a bit surprising.
In her own very simple style,
Mother Teresa wrote, “Mind your own
business.”
Basically, that is Jesus’ advice
to Peter in today’s gospel.
Jesus has just told Peter that
his future will involve hardship, even dying for his faith.
Peter looks at John who is there
and asks Jesus, “Well what about him?”
Peter is figuring that if I am
going to suffer, won’t he have to suffer too?
Jesus, in effect, tells Peter
just to worry about himself – to worry about how he follows Jesus’ way and not
to worry about John.
In other words, “Mind your own business.”
So, on the one hand, Jesus wants
us to be concerned for others and their well-being, and, in that sense, to mind
their business.
But on the other hand, we are to
be concerned first with understanding God’s will in our own lives and with our
own following of the Lord.
Then, in that way, we will be
minding our own business.
Then we will be led to an
appropriate concern for others without minding their business in a negative,
unhelpful and comparing way.
