31ST WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME

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.

A dating couple spends months, even years, getting to know one another before they decide to get married. Once they’re engaged, things get really exclusive. They spend most of their free time together while other relationships take a back seat. When they marry, they commit to be true to one another forever. But that commitment brings them joy because they have found the love of their life.

Our relationship with Jesus is a bit like that. We want to focus our whole hearts on him—on being with him and following his will for our lives. We decide that everything else comes second to our love for him.

That’s what Jesus means when he talks about “hating” in today’s Gospel (Luke 14:26). The Greek word here is miseo, which can mean to love something or someone less. So when Jesus talks about “hating,” he is not talking about our modern understanding of hate, which implies an intense dislike. He is saying that in comparison to him, everything else pales. He’s urging us to renounce one choice—one “love”—in favor of another (Matthew 10:37).

In practice, that means looking at all of our actions and all of our relationships through his eyes. We see how worthy Jesus is of our love, and we realize that loving him is always the best choice. Sometimes that means we give up one good thing for something even better. That’s why, for example, we might give up our lunch break so that we can worship the Lord at Mass. We’re choosing to spend time with the One who loves us the most.

Putting Jesus first also means “going against the grain” at times. We see how holy Jesus is, and we want to stay close to him. That means we may choose not to participate in something that others around us seem comfortable with, such as gossip. But that doesn’t mean we literally “hate” anyone. It just means that we are staying close to Jesus—and staying true to him, as a husband or wife is true to their spouse.

With all that in mind, let’s put Jesus first today!

“Lord, help me to choose you above all else.”

Romans 13:8-10
Psalm 112:1-2, 4-5, 9
Luke 14:25-33