Gospel Commentary: The Price of Faith

By Fr. John De Celles
Herald Columnist
(From the issue of 9/2/04)

In today’s Gospel text Jesus tells us: ""If anyone comes to me without hating his father and mother, wife and children, … and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple." Does this mean that we can’t love our families, or that we have to hate living, in order to be a Catholic? What is Jesus telling us?

To understand this saying we first have to remember that Jesus often uses the rhetorical technique of hyperbole — exaggerating to make a point. This is, of course, not the same thing as a lie, no more than saying "I’m so hungry I could eat a horse." Everyone listening to Him 2,000 years ago knew what He was doing; and so do we.

Secondly, we have to finish reading this entire passage to place this hyperbole in context. Jesus goes on to remind us that whenever we face choices in life, we should always carefully consider what each alternative entails, both in terms of the demands it will make on us, and the consequences that will come from it. To illustrate His point, Jesus gives us the two examples of building a tower and fighting a battle: before doing either the wise man will carefully consider the costs involved and not go forward unless he is able or willing to pay those costs.

Following Christ is a wonderful thing and the rewards are the greatest: sharing in the love and grace of Jesus in this world, and eternal perfect happiness with Him in the next. But the cost is great as well: being a Christian means committing, or giving, our entire life to Jesus, just as He has already given Himself totally for us and to us on the Cross.

Church history is full of stories of men and women who have made extraordinary sacrifices for love of Christ — men and women who have left their parents behind to work in foreign missionaries or foregone the pleasures of having a spouse and children in order to become priests or religious. Some have even laid down their lives as martyrs for Christ.

But Church history also is full of stories, mostly untold, of men and women who have been called to make ordinary sacrifices for love of Christ. How many of us have faced a relative who was hostile to the teaching of Christ? Maybe a husband who demands contraception or a daughter living with her boyfriend? Or maybe we find ourselves in a job or lifestyle that has pulled us slowly away from our life with Christ.

Each of us faces some challenge to our life in Christ — extraordinary or ordinary. And each of has a choice. We can be a Christian and follow Jesus without reserve, or we can be a pseudo-Christian, enjoying the trappings of Catholicism and even appreciating the grace Christ showers on us, but being uncommitted in our hearts to give ourselves totally and completely to Him in return. So that when push comes to shove and our faith is challenged, we are too attached to our possessions or family or ourselves, and we fail to live up to our commitment to Christ.

We claim to be building a tower, but we have not stopped to count the cost. We have volunteered for the battle, but we are unwilling to pay the price.

As we meditate on the Word of God this week, let us ask the Lord to give us the grace to recognize and accept the true costs of discipleship that lay ahead of us. May we be faithful to our commitment to Him at every moment of our lives.

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