WEDNESDAY, THIRTY FIRST WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME
Phil 2: 12-18 Ps 27: 1, 4, 13-14 Lk 14: 25-33
TOTAL LOVE THROUGH TOTAL RENUNCIATION
Today’s Gospel passage opens with the presentation of a great crowd travelling with Jesus. As Christian disciples, we march with Jesus to our heavenly destiny. Jesus always accompanied the people and taught them the values of the kingdom of heaven. To be a perfect disciple of Jesus is to follow Him always. One should think well before one decides to follow Jesus and be a true Christian because it is a difficult and costly affair. Besides detachment from one’s family, it involves difficult duties and costly risks: It is a tower to be built and a battle to be won. Initial enthusiasm is not enough; perseverance in total surrender of all one’s possessions is required.
Life in general requires a plan; It requires a setting of goals and striving after them with determination until we achieve them. So also, a Christian disciple is called to follow the Lord alone, by hating or rather by bearing a love for one’s own family and for one’s life, less than the love for the Lord. This discipleship becomes more radical in carrying one’s own cross and following the Master. Renunciation of one’s possession is of great value in the following of the Lord. In treading this difficult path, this narrow way, one is quite aware of one’s spiritual destiny. Following Jesus takes priority in one’s life no matter the quantity or the kind of sacrifices it entails. It is an ongoing activity, that is, it requires a perseverance to follow the Lord daily. The joy of the person who renounces everything in order to follow him is multiplied manifold.
Our journey with Jesus reaches its fulfillment when we center our life on Him. Our family ties, our love for our own life and the joys and comforts that this world provides can sometimes be hindrances in this journey of discipleship. As Jesus teaches us today, it is in the renouncing of all possessions that we become his true disciples. Total love for Christ is possible only though total renunciation.
Response: The Lord is my light and my salvation.
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