Homily for Wednesday, 5 November 2014– Ferial

Wednesday of the 31st week in Ordinary Time

Readings of the day: Philippians 2:12-18; Psalm 27:1, 4, 13-14; Luke 14:25-33

Jesus could not be saying in today’s Gospel reading that we are to hate everything and everyone other than God if we are to be his disciples, could he?

“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.” Surely this cannot be what Jesus meant, unless he was contradicting the rest of Scripture and even his own teaching: Love God and love neighbor; honor especially mother and father… Jesus would not have demanded that we renounce all relationships with family and loved ones in order to be his disciples. He would not have demanded that we put our lives in danger purposely. So what is Jesus saying?

Jesus’ words could be a simple invitation to us to examine our priorities. Who or what is most important to us as disciples of Jesus Christ? If our priorities are in the right order, from lowest to highest importance they might look something like this: Material possessions; relationships with one another; relationships with loved ones and close friends; household and family relationships; God. The word we hear as “hate” in today’s Gospel reading could originally have meant anything from to love or enjoy less than something or someone else to literally hate and try to destroy.

But I think Jesus is asking more of us here than to examine whether God is our greatest priority. Otherwise Jesus would not have spoken with such force, even for his time, as “hate ‘father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, and even [your] own life.’” There is a sharp sense of self-denial to what Jesus asks of us in order to be his disciples. The focus of our Gospel reading today, I think, is this: “Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.”

In the time of Jesus and the Gospel writers, families and loved ones were often divided by some members choosing to follow Jesus and others not. This would likely have been distressing for those who had accepted to leave their families behind; who had accepted the risk of ridicule from their closest loved ones; who had accepted even the risk to their own lives to follow Jesus.

What are the crosses we are asked to bear to be Jesus’ disciples? How are we being called to self-denial? For some of us, our crosses may be attachment to money, possessions, sin, bad habits, or whatever is keeping us from strengthening our relationship with God. We may be called to self-denial by devoting more time to prayer, or to ministry or mission in our parish and communities. For some of us, our cross may be to risk misunderstanding, division, or ridicule, perhaps in our families to commit to Christian discipleship. For some in our world, even today, to be a Christian is to risk their lives.

We are all called to self-denial in ways large and small every day. We pray here in this celebration for the strength for discipleship; to take up our crosses daily as needed and to “follow after” Jesus Christ.