“Whoever seeks to preserve his life will lose it, but whoever loses it will save it.” (Luke 17:33)

“Whoever seeks to preserve his life will lose it, but whoever loses it will save it.” (Luke 17:33)
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We cannot gain without losing.

An analogy.

Suppose a man has a large amount of money and he wants to have it doubled.

What should he do?

He must lose it first,

that is,

he must allow it to go off his hands first.

In other words, he must invest it in some business.

Investment means temporary loss for a permanent gain.

When we invest the amount we allow it to go off from our hands to return with  returns!

Suppose we keep the amount safe without investing it, that is, without losing it, the money will cease to be currency, but will become mere useless pieces of paper.

Loss and gain of life.

Our life in this world has two aspects, spiritual  and temporal.

It is because of our having a soul and a body.

The spiritual aspect is permanent,

to be continued into eternity

even after our life on this world comes to an end at death.

But the temporal aspect will not continue into eternity.

It will follow the body into the earth to get decomposed with it.

So, the life of our soul is our real life, as it has been created  to live for ever.

We must be ready to lose our temporal life in order to gain our spiritual life.

While living in this world

we must be ready to give up our material comforts

for the  sake of our spiritual welfare.

Voluntary loss of temporal comforts is an investment which will yield abundant spiritual returns.

That is why we give  importance to  acts like   fasting and penance, which hurt the body, but nourish our soul.

It we give up just one cup of coffee for Jesus,

thousand cups of bliss will be ready for us in  heaven!

Martyrs give up their life for Jesus, gaining at the same time eternal life.

By losing their material life

they save  their spiritual life.

When we give importance to material comforts we live our life for ourselves,

When we give importance to spiritual life, we live for Christ.

By calling us to “lose” our life,

Jesus is telling us that we must abandon ourselves to Him. 

We must allow Him to be  our spiritual  director and guide to enable us to live according to
His most holy will. 

This is the only way to save our life.

  We save it by letting go of our own will and letting God take over.

Let us be lost in Jesus, never to get out of Him.

By losing ourselves in Him, let us be united with Him, never to be separated.

By  losing our material wealth in helping the poor for the glory of God,

we invest the same in heaven to give us abundant and eternal  spiritual returns.

In short,

lose materially,

gain spiritually.

Let us get lost in Christ,

we will be safe eternally.

Lourdu Selvam.