Gospel: Luke 14:25-33
One day, when large crowds were walking along with Jesus, he turned and said to them, “If you come to me, unwilling to sacrifice your love for 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 count the cost, to see whether you have enough to complete it? Otherwise, if you, have laid the foundation and are not able to 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.
Reflection:
"We are always called to act with love."
What do we owe to one another? Cicero coined the phrase suum cuique, “to each his own”, meaning that we should give to others what is owed to them. However, Saint Paul reminds us that this is not simply a matter of settling financial debts. Our debt to others also includes love, and this is a kind of debt which we can never fully settle. In other words, as we are all created in the image and likeness of God, every person is deserving of our love and respect, and so we are always called to act with love. Christ’s words in the Gospel do not contradict this, as he is calling us to embrace his path of sacrificial love, which means moving beyond exclusivity or partiality in our love, as well as putting love of God first. The love we owe and show to God the Father, expressed as a union with his Son and guided by the Spirit, makes us more aware of situations where we are to show greater charity to our neighbor. The cost of discipleship is the debt of love. May we be willing to keep paying this debt to God and to our neighbor.
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