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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; and whoever does not take up the cross and
follow me is not worthy of me. Those who find their life will lose it, and
those who lose their life for my sake will find it. "Whoever welcomes
you welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me. Whoever welcomes a prophet in the name of a prophet will receive a prophet's
reward; and whoever welcomes a righteous person in the name of a righteous
person will receive the reward of the righteous; and whoever gives even a
cup of cold water to one of these little ones in the name of a disciple—truly I
tell you, none of these will lose their reward." Matt. 10:37-42
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If ever there was someone
who wanted to put you to the test about your Christian faith, today's gospel
text would make a perfect weapon. “Whoever comes to me and does not hate
their father and mother, spouse and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and even
their life itself, cannot be my disciple.” So your Jesus wants you to hate
your family – it says so right here.
Now if you reply by saying
that Jesus didn’t really say that or mean that, you create a whole lot of
trouble for yourself. Would that not be true of anything the gospels quote
Jesus as saying? Perhaps a little parable might help us here.
Suppose you belonged to a
family of a non-Christian religion. Your father is a strong, devote believer
and he strictly demands that you follow this same religion and all its beliefs
and practices. One day you come and announce that you are going to become a
Catholic; you believe that Jesus is the son of God and that the Catholic Church
is the true way to follow Christ. Your father tells you that if you do this, he
will disown you, strip you of your inheritance and nothing more to do with you.
And so you leave. In other words it is all or nothing.
In today's society,
the worst thing you can do is promote hate. Hate crimes are of the worst kind
of evil. Here Jesus is using hyperbole; which is an exaggerated statement or
claim not meant to be taken literally. Like when Jesus said “If your hand
causes you to sin, cut it off. If your foot causes you to sin, cut it off. And
if your eye causes you to sin, pluck it out. It is better for you to enter the
kingdom of God with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into hell.”
Mk. 9:43
Jesus is not teaching hate,
but he is teaching unconditional love. To be his disciple Jesus wants our whole
heart, our whole soul, our whole mind with all our strength. The problem we
face in the Church today is mediocrity – "I like some of the things the Church
teaches but certainly not everything". In Matthew’s account of this issue Jesus
is warning that to follow Him unconditionally will have its challenges.
“A man’s enemies
will be the members of his own household. Anyone who loves his father or mother
more than Me is not worthy of Me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more
than Me is not worthy of Me; and anyone who does not take up his cross and
follow Me is not worthy of Me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever
loses his life for My sake will find it. Mtt. 10:36
Jesus wants our whole heart - first and above all. Half-hearted faith will never last in today's world. It slowly
drains away until it is all gone. The choice is now in our hands.
Dr. Brant Pitre has an excellent commentary on today's gospel passage.
Go To: . . . LINK . . .
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