XXIII Sunday Ordinary Time

A reading from 
the holy Gospel according to Luke14:25-33

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? Otherwise, after laying the foundation and finding himself unable to finish the work the onlookers should laugh at him and say, ‘This one began to build but did not have the resources to finish.’ Or what king marching into battle would not first sit down and decide whether with ten thousand troops he can successfully oppose another king advancing upon him with twenty thousand troops? But if not, while he is still far away, he will send a delegation to ask for peace terms. In the same way, anyone of you who does not renounce all his possessions cannot be my disciple.” 

The Gospel of the Lord.

Twenty-Third Sunday in Ordinary Time

Christ makes this revelation: “If anyone comes to me without hating…even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.” The Lord wants to give us a love that so exceeds even the highest human loves that we would be “a prisoner for Christ Jesus.” The kind of detachment that Jesus calls for in the Gospel today disposes us to receive all that God is eager to give us. The Lord insists that we carry our own cross, for that cross separates us from anything that “burdens the soul” and “weighs down the mind” so that we can follow Christ faithfully, for “thus were the paths of those on earth made straight.”