CAN ANYONE SAY THAT GOD COMES FIRST IN THEIR LIFE?

“Great crowds were traveling with Jesus,
and he turned and addressed them,
‘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.
Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after me
cannot be my disciple.
Which of you wishing to construct a tower
does not first sit down and calculate the cost
to see if there is enough for its completion? . . .’”  Lk 14:25-33

This Gospel passage may sound strange and it may contains thoughts that we do not want to believe are those of Jesus. Can we imagine him telling us to “hate” anyone, let alone, our family members!  I suggest listening to Bishop Barron’s homily or (watch it on Youtube) on this Gospel. The Bishop asks us to see that these words of Jesus are clear evidence that Jesus is no ordinary man, no ordinary prophet. Here, he is God speaking to us, telling us that He and nothing else – not our families, not even our own lives – can be what gets our highest love and our fullest attention.

Jesus says that “you cannot be his disciple” without this full commitment to Him. And if you read the beginning of this passage, you see that he is saying this to the “great crowds traveling with him.” Does Jesus know that there is something amiss with the reason for their following him?  And, by way of this Gospel story, is he speaking to us  – trying to awaken us to the fact that we, too, may not be wholeheartedly committed to being his disciples?

CAN ANYONE SAY THAT GOD COMES FIRST IN THEIR LIFE?

I can honestly say that I want to love God more than any one or anything else, that I try to do that (rather, I try to be open to letting God help me do that) and I do have practices in place to help me with this, but I do wonder and ask myself if I am really putting God first. Do I, in a self-preservation way of thinking, have a tendency to hide from myself the inconsistencies between what I want or believe and what I think I want and believe?

Having vowed my life to God, getting this right is very important to me, so much so that I have surrounded myself with people who are also trying to make God their top priority. I encourage them to be honest with me when they see inconsistencies. Their warnings may be hard to hear, but eventually, I see the wisdom of their warnings and am willing to go through the corrective conversions.

WHAT MAKES ONE WANT TO BE A DISCIPLE, A FULLY-COMMITTED FOLLOWER, OF JESUS?

I asked Fr. Tim to formulate an answer to this question. I am pleased to share his response with you.

“I think there has to be some personal experience that it ‘makes sense’ to ascribe to God. I think that experience may be the occasion for the Holy Spirit to make Itself felt and work quietly within the soul. What we try to teach in catechetics is meant to provide reasonable ‘explanation’ for the Reality that one has encountered in a kind of mysterious moment: I don’t think it can engender or ‘teach’ faith. The Gospel today (Luke 5:1-11 – The Call of Simon the Fisherman) describes such an encounter – it shakes Simon and the others, and the Person of Jesus does the rest – leads them into following Him. On occasion it is a direct encounter with Jesus that turns the person around. Perhaps all we can do – more creatively and effectively than we usually manage – is to tell someone about ‘our Friend’, Jesus – and trust that the Spirit is moving and may guide the inquiring mind and heart to a personal encounter – after showing them that we understand the problems and challenges they are facing.”

ENCOUNTERS

We all have encounters.  They are those moments in our lives when we see and enter into the deeper realities of life. As Fr. Tim says above, the encounters are the times when one of God’s many graces break through the shell-like barrier that keeps us busy on the surface of reality. Some of you have shared with me your own encounters:

• One was an encounter with God in the midst of a high school retreat
• Another was holding a newborn child in a father’s arms
• Another was at prayer after asking if God is listening
• Another is experiencing the love flowing between a priest and an elderly woman as he gave her communion

And the list goes on and on. These encounters bring us into God’s world which is really the only “real” world and much better than the world we tend to live in. They are “personal experience”, like those of the apostles, for which it ‘makes sense’ to us, personally, to “ascribe to God.”

What thoughts and questions are welling up inside of you right now? Where is the Spirit leading you?

Sister Loretta

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