“Hate is a Strong Word” By Allison Provinsal, Fiat Ventures
23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time
When reflecting on this Sunday’s Gospel Reading from Luke, I felt a bit stumped as to the take away message. At least for me, this passage from Luke can seem a little confusing and even contradictory to what I thought before. Jesus addresses the crowds saying, “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.” I took slight offense to this on first glance. Why would Jesus call us to hate our families? Are they not the reason we are here; the reason we are who we are; the reason we work hard and love? Aren’t we called to love and honor our Father and Mother? How do we honor someone we hate?
Upon a bit of reflection and research on this verse, I have come to see that this is sort of the dramatic way of saying that they should not be the highest priority in my life above God. Our families, according to Jesus, should not come before him. Like anything else, if we put our families first in our life, we are in a way idolizing them. And in order to be a true follower of Christ, we need him to be the priority in our lives and in our hearts. I think when reading it in this light, it is not something unfamiliar to us as Christians, and the call is clear!
Jesus continues, in Luke, “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.’” Again, this felt contrary to what we are called to do, drop everything and follow Christ, right, without counting the cost? Well when the cost is all that we are and everything we’ve got, we have to both count it and not count it. We count it in the sense that we have to recognize what it’s going to take to follow Jesus. But we also don’t count the cost in the sense that we know it’s totally worth it in the end, whatever it takes.
Are you “buying into” this Christian life of following Jesus? Is this life worth putting Jesus before our families, friends and all things we hold dear? If that cost is worth the prize of eternal life with God, (which I hope you see it is!), then by all means, dive in and follow Christ with every enthusiasm and ounce of Faith you have.
Following Jesus takes full commitment. And as we all know in this busy world we live in, it is often very hard to commit to something, especially when we do not know all the facts, and all that this commitment will entail. This is a life-long commitment to sacrifice, service and faith. But it is the most rewarded commitment you can ever make, and one well worth the sacrifice, eternity in paradise!
