By Colleen O’Sullivan
Brothers and sisters: Owe nothing to anyone, except to love one
another; for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. (Romans 13:8)
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.” (Luke 14:
15-27)
Piety
Lord,
grant that I may see thee more clearly,
love thee
more dearly,
follow thee more nearly.
(Spiritual
Exercises 104, from Hearts on Fire:
Praying with Jesuits, p. 63)
Study
Family matters to us. I couldn’t begin to count the number of times
growing up that my mother told my siblings and me “blood is thicker than
water.” The Spanish have a proverb that
says “An ounce of blood is worth more than a pound of friendship.” My Mormon friend assures me that family is
forever.
Family was probably even more important in Jesus’
day. People didn’t “leave home” and scatter
to the four winds as we do today. A
person’s multi-generational, extended family, from parents to distant cousins,
generally spent all their lives together in one village or small geographical
area. A father’s occupation dictated
what his sons would do for a living. Your
family lineage determined what religious sect you were a part of. Family was everything.
So, Jesus’ words are shocking. Unless we hate all these beloved family
members, and even ourselves, he says we can’t be his disciples! Maybe in our society today, where our
self-esteem and self-importance are so carefully polished and nurtured, the
part about hating ourselves is the more jarring note.
Jesus wants to shake us up! Does he literally mean we should hate our
families and ourselves? No. As Paul writes to the Romans, loving one
another is the fulfillment of the law.
The Lord is simply trying to get our attention. Whatever we hold sacred in this world – our
families, ourselves, our careers, our accumulated possessions, our prestige –
all of that has to take a back seat to our love for Jesus Christ. If he isn’t our greatest love, we’ll never
make it to the end of the journey with him.
We’ll fall along the roadside at some point, exhausted and depleted, for
the Way isn’t an easy path. There was no
shortcut to the Resurrection for Jesus.
He had to go by way of the Cross.
He’s trying to warn us that there are no shortcuts to eternal life for
us, either. Should we choose to follow
him, we will face our own crosses. Jesus
hopes we will undertake the journey and he promises to accompany us every step
of the way, but he wants us to do it with our eyes wide open.
Action
One of my friends enrolled her 4-year-old in a
church-sponsored pre-school. She picked
him up at lunchtime one day and they went to the grocery store on the way
home. To her amazement, he cheerfully greeted
every shopper they happened upon with the words, “Jesus loves you!” Before they got to the check-out counter, he
declared, “I love Jesus more than I love you, Mommy!”
The Lord says that we have to become like little
children in order to enter the Kingdom.
Can you echo this little boy’s words and say, “Jesus, I love you more
than anything or anyone else in the world?”
If not, what is it that pulls you away, and what would it take for Jesus
to come first in your life?
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