Gospel (Mk 10,28-31) - At that time, Peter began to say to Jesus: "Behold, we have left everything and followed you". Jesus answered him, "Truly I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands for my sake and for the sake of the Gospel, who does not already receive now, in this time , a hundred times as much in homes and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and fields, along with persecutions, and eternal life in the time to come. Many of the first will be last and the last will be first."

The commentary on the Gospel by Monsignor Vincenzo Paglia

The words of Peter, who acted as spokesperson for the other Apostles, reveal a behavior opposite to that of the rich man we read yesterday. In fact, they left everything and followed him. There is therefore someone who responded to Jesus' call: it is that "we" that Peter uses on behalf of the first disciples and of all those who confidently abandon themselves to the Lord's invitation. Peter's awareness allows Jesus to deepen the meaning of following him: it is neither a sacrifice nor a loss compared to a life that would have been richer and happier. The Gospel shows what true wealth the disciples of Jesus obtain. They, leaving everything to follow him, already receive now, that is, in this earth, a hundredfold of what they have left, together with persecutions (and Jesus does not fail to notice it) and, in the future, they will receive eternal life. The community of believers becomes, for each disciple, mother, brother, sister and home. And this brotherhood will never end. The hyperbole of the "hundredfold" shows the sense of abundance and the quality of the wealth that those who follow the Gospel receive. Jesus' words are not so much a reassurance to the disciples, but express the reality of the "us" of the Church, the family of God, in which everyone without exclusion finds themselves a part and share its joy and richness. Let us not be fooled by the spirit of the world, dominated by the dictatorship of money and materialism. Already today, in this life, following Jesus gives us an existence full of brothers, sisters, fathers, mothers, children. It is life in the Church, in which truly the last, that is, those who were not afraid to leave something of themselves to follow Jesus, will find themselves first, not because of their merits, but because of the abundance of God's grace, and will be able testify to the world the joy of their choice.