Dear Brothers and Sisters,
Today the Lord has given us this word: disciple, and it especially for those who want to be true followers of Jesus Christ. This word is overused a lot today. It is given to anyone who is part of a small group, and all are considered disciples of Christ. A disciple is not the one who says he is a disciple. This word today is wonderful because it says that great crowds were following him and perhaps, he realized that many were lukewarm or just looking for miracles, so he turns around and spoke to them and said, “Anyone who comes to me without hating his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, and even his very life, cannot be my disciple.”
The footnote in the Bible says the word hate is a Hebraism that means totally detached from his family and even his very life. In another place Jesus says that the person who loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me. Jesus does not say a disciple needs to pray a lot, has to speak very eloquently about God, doesn’t commit serious sins, nor does he ask the disciple to be humble and always chaste. He doesn’t ask for any of that, why? The Lord will do all of the above himself in his time. Only the Lord can transform your heart, your life, but something very simple in necessary. Jesus Christ does not invent anything. What he said is the same word the Jews received in Deuteronomy 6: 4, which is the Shema: you will love the Lord with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your strength. This is the creed of Israel and so it is part of our faith. We are Judeo-Christian Catholics because Jesus and his mother were Jews, so were the apostles and St. Paul.
Jesus is not saying anything new. He is reminding them of a subject they knew very well. This word came to them before they entered the Promised Land. They were also asked: who do you want to serve, God or idols, and they chose God. You shall love the Lord with all your heart, all your soul and all your strength. So, if you want to be my disciple, then love the Lord with all your heart, all your soul and all your strength, and hate your father, mother, wife, children and even your very life.
The heart is the seat of affection, of love, everything is for God, to love him with everything you have. The soul is life. The soul is to love God, even more than your own life. Whoever seeks his life in this world, will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake and for the sake of the gospel will find it. Then he adds whoever does not take up his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.
Since you were little, you always sought not to suffer. Who wants to suffer? Nobody wants to suffer, neither do I. And yet God made suffering holy. Looking at the cross we say, holy, holy, holy, because it helps us to enter the narrow gate; it helps us to be the last one. No one can be my disciple if he does not carry his cross and get behind me. He doesn’t say, “Nail yourself to the cross.” Nor does he say it to Peter or anyone else. It is Jesus Christ who dies on the cross, only him, and he asks you to carry it. Jesus is already nailed to it and is already giving his life for you. The only thing you need to do is to carry it, accept it, love it.
In order to carry it, I need to know what is my cross and to get behind the Lord. You cannot follow someone unless you get behind him. When we go behind him, he takes us to heaven with him. Then you will be my disciple. However, all your mind and all your reason will tell you not to go there. Your reason will tell you this illness will not make you happy. Your poverty will not make you happy. This is what your mind and your reason tells you. To love the Lord with all your mind you need to break and crucify your reason saying: “I can be happy being poor, I can be happy with this illness, I can be happy with this wife, I can be happy with this son who is a drug addict.” I can be happy and break my reason and love the Lord with all my heart, and soul and strength.
Then he finishes with the third part of being a disciple: to renounce all your possessions. Not only your money, but all that you have because you are not going to take anything with you when you die. This very night the Lord says I will ask for your soul and what will happen with all your goods. Jesus is very radical when he says, “Anyone who does not renounce all his possessions cannot be my disciple.” This is a great grace for us because we can get attached to a comb or a pair of shoes or to anything. Many put their hearts into the latest iPhone, or a new car, or so many other material things. What an idolatry we have for material things. We caress the car more than the wife. Our love for material things is amazing but take to heart that the Lord invites you to love him above all things, with all your heart, and mind and strength. He will fulfill this in us. He does not lie.
There are some who speak of this gospel as being unattainable and so they water it down. They also say don’t worry if the kids are living together before marriage, and why not bless irregular unions. They think we need to lower the demands of this gospel because it is too much, and we want to feel good about ourselves. Those who live these three things is a Christian, a disciple of Christ.
Are there any disciples here? The Father knows that we cannot do it, but he does not lower the message. He speaks the truth to us. He will do it for you. You will love the Lord with all your heart, soul and strength and he will do it for you. Continue on this path, little by little, you will love the Lord with all your heart, even above the affections for your family and friends.
You will love the Lord with your cross, carrying it, accepting it, thanking the Lord for it and seeing it is a blessing. Little by little this change will take place in you. You can have dominion over money and your goods; they will no longer be your master. Like Frodo we have to destroy the ring which can symbolize many things, especially love of money. Frodo has a community, the fellowship of the ring, which was a collection of men, elves, wizards, hobbits, everyone that helped him to fulfill this wonderful mission. Only God will be your God, not money or anyone else.
Don’t water down the words of Christ who will give you the opportunity to love him above all things and to carry your cross and not run away from it, which is what always causes us to sin. In this Eucharist, the Body of Christ, broken for you, his blood shed for you, which opens heaven for each one of us today. When you have Christ within you, you will love God with all your heart, soul and strength.