Living for God in Christ Jesus
To All,
In our Gospel reading for Sunday (Matthew 10:37-42), Jesus sets the conditions for discipleship:
“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 his cross and follow after me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.”
These words are challenging and demanding, and at first glance, they can almost seem harsh. Is Jesus demanding that we choose between Him and our loved ones? I don’t believe that Jesus is calling us to love our loved ones less than we do. He is calling us, as disciples, to put Him first. As I was reflecting on this, it came to me that Jesus’ words were not so unreasonable. The source of our love for those closest to us is the love God has for us. We are to put first the One who has loved us and our loved ones to the point of pouring out His Body and Blood for us and rising from the dead to give us and our loved ones the promise of everlasting life.
To accept God’s love in Jesus Christ enables us to go beyond the ones closest to us in love and service to others. In the Gospel reading, Jesus speaks to how we are to treat each other in the church: “Whoever receives you receives me, and whoever receives me receives the one who sent me. Whoever receives a prophet because he is a prophet…whoever receives a righteous man because he is a righteous man…whoever gives only a cup of cold water to one of these little ones…because the little one is a disciple—amen, I say to you, he will surely not lose his reward.”
In the church we cannot afford to follow the trend in our world towards division and condemnation. The love of God in Jesus Christ and the needs of the world call us to come together to serve others and help build up the kingdom. That is the way to proclaim the Good News of Jesus Christ. As disciples, then, we are called to go outside of the church walls. We are not in a position to call anyone “godforsaken.” We are called to love others, even strangers, even those who we see as too different, because God loves them.
As St. Paul writes in our second reading,
“If, then, we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him. We know that Christ, raised from the dead, dies no more; death no longer has power over him. As to his death, he died to sin once and for all; as to his life, he lives for God. Consequently, you too must think of yourselves as dead to sin and living for God in Jesus Christ.”
We are to be dead to selfishness, greed, bigotry, and apathy, and be alive to following Jesus in love, as we have been loved, even when we have to take up our cross.
I welcome any comments or questions. Thanks for your time.
In Christ,
Phil, CP
