KNOW YOUR COMMITMENT

November 3, Wednesday

THIRTIETH-FIRST WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME

 

      St. Augustine said: “Love and do what you want,” not to declare that in the name of love anything goes, but that if we truly love, then, we are ready to give our all to God and our neighbor. We will know what is right. And when love is no longer authentic, we will know too, and do what is to be done to remain faithful. This genuine love must be ready to follow Jesus without reservations.

      Jesus stresses that Christians must follow Jesus radically and consistently. They must know what they are doing. They may not stop halfway, but must look ahead. They must take their Christianity seriously.

                 

First Reading: Romans 13:8-10

Don’t run up debts, except for the huge debt of love you owe each other. When you love others, you complete what the law has been after all along. The law code—don’t sleep with another person’s spouse, don’t take someone’s life, don’t take what isn’t yours, don’t always be wanting what you don’t have, and any other “don’t” you can think of—finally adds up to this: Love other people as well as you do yourself. You can’t go wrong when you love others. When you add up everything in the law code, the sum total is love.

 

Gospel: Luke 14:25-33

One day when large groups of people were walking along with him, Jesus turned and told them, “Anyone who comes to me but refuses to let go of father, mother, spouse, children, brothers, sisters—yes, even one’s own self!—can’t be my disciple. Anyone who won’t shoulder his own cross and follow behind me can’t be my disciple.

“Is there anyone here who, planning to build a new house, doesn’t first sit down and figure the cost so you’ll know if you can complete it? If you only get the foundation laid and then run out of money, you’re going to look pretty foolish. Everyone passing by will poke fun at you: ‘He started something he couldn’t finish.’

“Or can you imagine a king going into battle against another king without first deciding whether it is possible with his ten thousand troops to face the twenty thousand troops of the other? And if he decides he can’t, won’t he send an emissary and work out a truce?

“Simply put, if you’re not willing to take what is dearest to you, whether plans or people, and kiss it good-bye, you can’t be my disciple.

 

Prayer

God our Father,
we have accepted your invitation
to follow your Son Jesus, as his disciples.
We do not know what the future has in store
yet we are willing to live in hope and joy.
without fear or discouragement.
Give us the strength of your Spirit
to take our faith seriously
and to accept our task in life
with all its consequences.
For we are certain Jesus will lead us to you,
our loving God, for ever and ever. Amen.

 

Reflection:

To the Lord, you don’t surrender anything until you surrender everything
Corporate planners and management trainers would insist to always make positive statements instead of negatives. Anything that begins with “Don’t” or “No” is not much appreciated. To the standards of today’s management strategists, Jesus’ plan was a failure from the start! How could he draw up his masterplan for recruiting his disciples by such strange and negative requirements?
Today’s passage presents three conditions for discipleship and they are non-negotiable! If you don’t hate everyone else, if you don’t carry your own cross, and if you don’t give up everything you have, then you cannot be a disciple of Christ! Wait a moment! Did we not say that we are disciples of Jesus? Take time to go back to the gospel of today. Jesus has some message for us.
Discipleship of Christ does not come free of cost; it involves a price. Evangelist Luke deliberates on the price of discipleship. If not careful with the reading, the passage could lead to some wrong understanding of the teaching of Jesus. The text proposes that the requirement for discipleship is ‘to hate’ father, mother, wife, children, brothers and sisters and even one’s own life. How would we understand this exhortation “to hate”, when throughout the rest of the Gospel, we find Jesus command his disciples to love even the enemies and to pray for those who persecute. This command “to hate” seems totally unchristian!
Jesus does not recommend a literal abandonment of one’s family. That could be an act of irresponsibility and a violation of that commandment of love. It is rather a dramatic way of saying that anyone who puts any person, even those closest to them, before total commitment to Christ and his mission is not ready to be a disciple. You do not give anything to the Lord until you give him everything. There is no middle way, it is either total or nothing. This is the cost of discipleship.
Jesus speaks of the new family that he establishes for the people who listen to and accept his Word. Remember when the Mother of Jesus together with his brothers came to meet Jesus, he pointed towards those who were listening to him and said, here are my Mother, brothers and sisters. The only criteria to become a member of the family of Jesus is to listen to the Word of God and keep it. Again, when a woman from among the crowd shouts praising the mother of Jesus, his response was also exactly the same: ‘Those who hear the Word of God and keep it are even more blessed’

 

Video available on Youtube: To the Lord, you don’t surrender anything until you surrender everything