your father and mother, your spouse and children, your brothers and sisters, and
indeed yourself, you cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not follow me, carrying his own
cross, cannot be my disciple. Do you build a house without first sitting down to countthe cost,
to see whether you have enough to complete it? Otherwise, if you, have laid the foundation
and are not ableto finish it, everyone will make fun of you: ‘This fellow began to build and was
not able to finish.’ And when a king wages war against another king, does he go to fight
without first sitting down to consider whether his ten thousand can stand against the twenty
thousand of his opponent? And if not, while the other is still a long way off, he sends
messengers for peace talks. In the same way, none of you may become my disciple, if he
doesn’t give up everything he has.
Reflect
Carrying our own crosses.” As Jesus’ disciples, selfsacrifice should always be part of our
daily disposition. It will be difficult for us to proceed with this faith journey unless
we grow in our sense of sacrifice. Our faith demands of us to make sacrifices. Today’s
Gospel narrates Jesus teaching his disciples an important lesson on discipleship – the
lesson on self-sacrifice. This sacrifice is tantamount to carrying our own cross. The
path of discipleship challenges us to give up everything for Jesus’ sake and for the sake of
the gospel. Hence, becoming Jesus’ disciples is not a joke. It is a serious matter. It entails
self-sacrifices. Nowadays, many people think that there seem to be ready-made answers
for everything due to the advancement of information technology. If one wants to
access information about anything, the Internet seems to be ready to provide easy
answers. However, there is no amount of information that can transform us into true
disciples of Jesus. We can only be transformed if we are willing to undergo the formation
appropriate to Jesus’ disciples. In the course of such formation, the very first thing we must
learn is self-sacrifice.
© Copyright Bible Diary 2024
