Well, it looks like I need to hate my family now. All joking aside, but I believe Jesus gets his point across. That we are called to do anything to be God’s disciples. We need to be willing to hate our family, take up our cross, stop loving processions, and see if we will get to heaven. Are we willing to do that?
I think what Jesus is getting at is that we are called to have this radical mindset that we are willing to do anything to follow Jesus. It does not matter what life we have or what we might lose, that we are willing to make sure that we are his disciple and nothing else. This is hard and difficult and will take us fighting against our human nature to do. We naturally want to be liked and have things, but Jesus is calling us to something greater than our natural humanity. He is calling us to follow God.
What are you willing to do and sacrifice to follow God? What are you willing to leave behind? This is something that we need to pray about this week and see what you am willing to do for God? And if it is not sacrifice everything, then why is that? Do we only want to follow Jesus up until a certain point? And after that, no longer. Brothers and sisters, it is important for us to want to do anything for Christ and have no limits doing that. We need to want to hate our family or cut off our hands. We need to be willing to do anything for Christ.
It does take this radicalness for us to get to Heaven. It takes a lot of time and energy, and it is difficult. We really cannot be Christians when we feel like it. We need to be radical Christians every single day without limits for God. It takes work and I think we all know how much work it takes to not sin, to do what is right, to go against our natural desires. We need to be willing to change everything for Jesus if it is preventing us from being his disciples.
So, what is that one thing that is preventing you from being a radical disciple for Christ? I think most of us know that answer because we deal with it every single day. Are we willing to remove that for Jesus? Are we willing to change that and work on it as best as we can?
Something that I would recommend is getting away from the near occasion of sin because as I sure you know, sometimes it is hard to say no to sin. That is why we need to try to stay away from what is tempting us. So, if you lie a lot, then do not put yourself in the occasion to lie. If you gossip, then do not be near those people that cause you to gossip and do this for every single sin. When we do this it is easier to say no to sin whenever we are not tempted.
Above all of this, brothers and sisters, that Jesus will always be with you to help you to do this because we need his grace to not be tempted, to change our lives, to be this radical Christians for him. We need Jesus to help us to be his disciples because without him, we could not do it. We need him more than ever to be the person that he wants us to be, so cling to him and the trinity and they will help us forever.
Given for Twenty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time Year C