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Gospel: Luke 14: 25-33
Great crowds were traveling with Jesus,
and he turned and addressed them,
“If anyone comes to me without hating his father and mother,
wife and children, brothers and sisters,
and even his own life,
he cannot be my disciple.
Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after me
cannot be my disciple.
Which of you wishing to construct a tower
does not first sit down and calculate the cost
to see if there is enough for its completion?
Otherwise, after laying the foundation
and finding himself unable to finish the work
the onlookers should laugh at him and say,
‘This one began to build but did not have the resources to finish.’
Or what king marching into battle would not first sit down
and decide whether with ten thousand troops
he can successfully oppose another king
advancing upon him with twenty thousand troops?
But if not, while he is still far away,
he will send a delegation to ask for peace terms.
In the same way,
everyone of you who does not renounce all his possessions
cannot be my disciple.”
The Gospel of the Lord.
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“If anyone comes to me without hating his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.”
At first glance, this verse makes no sense. It seems to run contrary to all of Christ’s other teachings about love and service.
So, what does he mean?
The verb “hate” does not mean anger or hostility. Rather, if there is a conflict, then the demands of discipleship must take priority over any other human relationship, even those we hold most sacred.
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In the early Church, this was certainly an issue, as Christians sometimes left their families, their homes, and their belongings in order to preach the Gospel to other villages, even to the ends of the earth.
Faith also caused some marriages to split. Christianity was an outlawed religion in the first century; it could be dangerous to believe. Thus, some pagans divorced their Christian spouses out of fear of persecution.
This was common enough for Paul to write about it in his First Letter to the Corinthians, consoling those Christians whose spouses left them, saying, “God has called you to peace.”
I experienced a similar type of tension in my own life after accepting God’s call to the priesthood. Not everyone in my family was supportive initially; some still aren’t.
But Christ comes first.
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Have you ever been in that position before, forced to choose between Christ and another good, even a relationship of great value?
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The path of belief is rarely smooth and straight. Sometimes it’s an uphill climb, requiring us to leave good things behind in order to follow the Lord.
But if Jesus puts us first, then we should do the same for him. As he reminds us elsewhere, “No one can serve two masters.”
How might I put the Lord first today?
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Image credits: (1) TrustPilot (2) Pantocrator, Mount Sinai (3) MY-DFM