Fifteenth Monday of Ordinary Time

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.

Today’s gospel is full of hard teachings. Jesus tells us we need to love him more than our family, to take up our cross, and to lose our lives for his sake. The first teaching is not about rejecting our families because they are bad for us, but rather that we should not cling to them so tightly that we miss opportunities to do God’s Will. Sometimes when we are with family we have a harder time acting Christ-like toward them. However this is what Jesus wants us to do. He wants us to be able to leave our family behind and come follow him. He also asks us to take up our crosses. This is also a difficult thing to do. We might be comfortable with our lives or feel like we are suffering enough. However, we should never fear bearing the cross with Christ. He will always give us the strength we need to carry our burdens. The worst thing we can do is reject our cross because by doing so we reject the sacrifices of Christ. Lastly, Jesus asks us to lose our lives for him and seek him, rather than the pleasures of the world. Life isn’t bad, it’s good, but if we don’t orient our lives toward God, then we can corrupt the inherent goodness of life by focusing on living for our own sakes, instead of living for God.

Do we love our family and friends more than God? Have we picked up our crosses or denied them? Do we live our lives for God or for ourselves?

O Lord, grant us the grace to pick up our crosses and love you more than our families and ourselves.

Amen.