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Sunday, September 09, 2007 Meditation Luke 14:25-33 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. (Luke 14:26) Is Jesus really asking us to hate our parents or to leave our spouse or children? Not at all. He is trying to teach us what it means to be a true disciple. He is asking us to “count the cost” of following him. Perhaps we should begin by reaffirming Jesus’ teachings that hatred is an offense against God and that loving others is the greatest commandment. We should also remember that he performed his first miracle at Cana, when he blessed a wedding celebration. Unless Scripture contradicts itself, Jesus cannot really be asking us to hate our loved ones. It’s helpful, here to recall the way Matthew’s Gospel describes the same event: “Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me” (Matthew 10:37). It’s a matter of priority, not absolutes. Jesus continues by asking us to think about how costly discipleship is. He compares our decision to put him on the throne of our lives to a person who wants to build a tower or a king who wants to go to war (Luke 14:28,31). In both examples, one would be considered foolish to undertake such a massive project unless they knew that they could bring it to completion. Jesus wants us to bring to completion the faith into which we were baptized. This may involve facing difficult times and making some tough decisions about our lives. It may also involve facing down strong temptations to immerse ourselves in the world or to place our spouse or our family over and above Jesus. How can we do this? By grace. On our own, it is almost impossible to put Jesus first. But with God’s help, all things are possible! “Lord, give me the grace I need to put you first in my heart.” Wisdom 9:13-18; Psalm 90:3-6,12-17; Philemon 9-10,12-17 |
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The best way to see this is in the life of a very real person who lived out this radical vocation to holiness. Thomas More thought about joining the monks who educated him, but realized that he was called to marriage and family. And so he took a job with the government, got married, and had kids. He rose through government service to become the Chancellor of England under Henry VIII. He had a magnificent mansion on the Thames River where he entertained his friend the King as well some of the most famous men and women of Europe. He had a great sense of humor, a deep relationship with his kids, a profound prayer life, and loved to write fiction, satire, and theology.
The practical aspects of what Jesus is talking about sometimes are pretty obvious. I remember that when I was on the Cape a few years ago, St. Mark's Gospel came up in which Jesus says, "Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her; and if she divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery." I preached on this Gospel as tenderly as I could without watering it down. Nevertheless, after Mass a few couples came to me saying how "hurtful" what I had said was and how such words make it hard for them to come to Mass. I asked them what their personal situation was. In each case, they had been divorced and remarried outside the Church without having even investigated whether their first marriage might have been null from the beginning. After helping them to see that I was merely echoing Jesus' words and that the Church and I were not "making up" a teaching on divorce and remarriage, I asked them whether they love Jesus more than they love their new spouses. They paused. I asked them if they had to make a choice between Jesus and their new spouses, whom would they choose? They paused again. Then one of them asked why they couldn't have "both." I said that might be possible, if their first marriages were null, but until that time, they cannot have both and have to choose. If there is a choice between loving Jesus and following his teaching or loving a second civil spouse and rejecting Jesus' teaching, if a person chooses the latter, then the second civil spouse is a Barabbas in that person's life. Jesus calls us to love him to the point of "hating" all others if we're worthy to be his disciples.