Reflection
Owe nothing to anyone, except to love one another.
Romans 13:8
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.
Luke 14:26
Today’s readings have a couple of strongly worded passages. If we were to follow St. Paul’s directions literally, all of us with a mortgage or a line of credit would find ourselves wanting. But the Greek word that Paul uses for “owe” goes beyond a mere monetary debt. It speaks of being bound one to another. We “owe” many things to the people in our lives. Depending on your relationship, it could be obedience, service, kindness, or a myriad of other emotions or actions. But what Paul is saying in this epistle is that all of these are contained in love. If we begin and end with love, we are assured that we have covered all of our obligations.
Going onto the gospel, Jesus tells us that we must hate all, including our own lives, to be a disciple. But what does he mean by hate? If you ask a child what food they love they might say ice cream. If you ask them what food they hate they might say broccoli. A more complete way of saying this is “I prefer not to eat broccoli” or “I have a preference for ice cream.” I believe this is closer to what Jesus is saying. If we are to be His disciples we need to have a preference, above all else, for loving Him. We need to put the love of Christ Jesus above all else in our lives. And from that love will flow the proper actions in relationships to everyone else we encounter.
It is not a matter of “hating” other people in our lives to the point of doing them harm, but simply if we hold anyone (including ourselves) higher than Christ in our lives, it will be challenging to be a disciple of Christ. Jesus is teaching us that this requires a full commitment of our hearts, our minds, and our spirits if we are to follow him on the path of discipleship. We are called on to renounce our attachment to all things of this world so that we can participate as disciples in the building up of the kingdom of God.
