Some of the stories in Mark's Gospel can be used to show us things that happen every day around us. For example, Bill Gates, the billionaire Microsoft founder, gives one million pounds every year to charity. As a family, we'll fill envelopes with our spare change that come through the door asking for donations but if you think of a homeless person giving the tiny amount they possess to charity, it is totally different. Who is giving more? Is a million pounds more than an envelope full of coppers? No it's not. The poor person who has next to nothing and who is giving that small amount is giving the most. A story like this relates to The Widow's Offering which we read about in Marks Gospel, where many rich men give lots of money to the temple treasury, and a poor old widow gives two copper coins. Both the widow and the poor person who I was talking about above are showing Christian like qualities, they are giving every thing they have to god whereas the rich men and the people donating are just giving what they have to spare. They are giving half heartedly.
In my eyes an example of a modern day disciple would be Mother Teresa. She was a Roman Catholic nun, founder of the Missionaries of Charity, and Nobel laureate. Originally named Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu, she entered the Order of the Sisters of Our Lady of Loreto in Ireland at the age of 18. She trained in Dublin and Darjeeling, India, before taking her religious vows in 1937. While serving as principal of a Roman Catholic high school in Calcutta, she was moved by the presence of the sick and dying on the city's streets. In 1948 she was granted permission to leave her post at the convent and begin a ministry among the sick.
In 1950 Mother Teresa and her associates were approved within the archdiocese of Calcutta as the Missionaries of Charity. Later the order was recognized as a pontifical congregation under the jurisdiction of Rome. Members of the congregation take four vows on acceptance by the religious community. Required in addition to the three basic vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience is a fourth vow pledging service to the poor, whom Mother Teresa described as the embodiment of Christ. In 1952 Mother Teresa opened the Nirmal Hriday (“Pure Heart”) Home for the Dying in Calcutta. Subsequently she extended her work onto five continents. In recognition of her efforts she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979. She was forced to scale down her activities in 1990 because of declining health. She gave up her life, sacrificed the things she cared about to help others. She fed the dying, served the poorest of the poor and all because she felt it was her responsibility and the responsibility of those around her to help those less fortunate then her self. Mother Teresa provided a service to the less fortunate and felt it was her vocation to provide this service. She spent most of her life helping those in need, she put the life of others before her own and sacrificed the people and the things that she treasured and cared about most in order for her to help others. Mother Teresa showed loyalty and commitment for even when things got really tough she didn’t give up for she was determined to do what she felt was right.
Monks and Nuns spend their lives dedicated day and night to God, and I think this is the closest you can get to God, but I also think that in terms of disciples today, priests are more in that league, as they are 'in touch' with the people, they have the task of getting people to think about religion, and they have to survive getting mocked, and being shunned. They have to also give up many of what we would call "life essentials". They sacrifice things they care about for their religion and what they believe in.
To be a modern day disciple, you need to do as the first disciples did, suffer. There are costs and rewards, and the costs of dropping everything to follow your faith as a monk would do means that suffering occurs in the form of no luxuries, no entertainment, no sex, no relationships and total obedience. But then reflecting that, the satisfaction a monk must get from what he does must simply overcome all the things we experience on a daily basis. Priests also experience suffering, having to handle with non-believers attitudes, mocking and shunning, as well as the vows of chastity and obedience. Priests and strong Christians want to make the world a better place; they want everyone to believe in Christ and his love for everyone. They believe that if they concentrate on doing what god wants then they will be rewarded in their life to come in heaven.
