“For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?” (Matthew 16:26)

“For what profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?” (Matthew 16:26)

Jesus poses this rhetorical question to make us think. What, indeed, is more important or valuable than our eternal soul? Yet man is often fooled to fixate upon what the “world” offers us (money, fame, power, pleasure, prestige, and fleeting happiness), rather than what a righteous life can bring: Salvation and the Kingdom of God. Choosing temporal, earthly gain comes at the worst possible cost to our soul, and trading the eternal for the temporary is the epitome of foolishness. 

Fr. John