31st Week in Ord. Time, Wednesday – 4th November 2020 — Gospel: Lk 14,25-33
Daily Commitment in Discipleship
As deeply as one might love a parent or sibling, spouse or child, one must love Jesus even more. Jesus must hold the disciple’s allegiance over all else, including family. The call to “hate” family members and even one’s own life must be read literally but as a form of exaggeration. Perhaps what Jesus means by hating family is to refuse to live by narrow, and exclusive ideas of family, rather to expand to include neighbours far and near. Likewise, Jesus’ call to give up all of one’s possessions is exaggerated rhetoric, because material possessions can be a great hindrance to discipleship. Pursuing discipleship means being attached to Jesus, not to possessions. No earthly attachment, neither family nor possessions, can deter one’s pursuit of God’s kingdom. Jesus must be the focus, the passion, and the goal of all who seek him. Discipleship is a relationship with Jesus and a commitment to him. It means carrying the cross and following him. Simon of Cyrene was forced to bear the weight of Jesus’ cross on his back because he went behind Jesus (Lk 23,26). Following Jesus means suffering with him, bearing the pain of persecution, and sharing the fate of rejection by the world. Carrying the cross is a daily struggle and the commitment must be renewed every day when confronted with the temptation to lay it down (Lk 9,23-25).
