Readings:
• Wis 9:13-18b
• Ps 90:3-4, 5-6, 12-13, 14-17
• Phmn 9-10, 12-17
• Lk 14:25-33
Writing once about a prominent televangelist, I half-jokingly observed that the “only” topics the preacher in question never discussed for fear of offending his listeners were “Jesus, sin, salvation, hell, Cross, Satan, and the Final Judgment.”
Although some televangelists are associated with “conservative” forms of Christianity, their pandering and sensational versions of pseudo-Christianity are similar in content—or lack of content—to the theologically liberal Christianity described seventy years ago by Protestant theologian H. Richard Niebuhr.
He dryly described the mushy message of Christianity-lite in this way: “A God without wrath brought men without sin into a kingdom without judgment through the ministrations of a Christ without a cross.”
The appeal of this spirituality without reference to sin, salvation, hell, and the Cross is understandable, even if the use of the term “Christian” to describe it is indefensible. Scripture, as well as Tradition, contradicts such “easy believism” and “cheap grace,” to borrow terms from another Protestant author, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who was murdered by Nazis for refusing to renounce his belief in Jesus Christ.
Every Christian who has died rather than reject Jesus as Savior and Lord gives concrete witness to the words spoken by Jesus in today’s Gospel: “Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.”
This passage from Luke’s Gospel is difficult, even unnerving. St. Augustine wrote that Jesus’ statement about hating father, mother, wife, children, brothers, and sisters seems contradictory, not the least because Jesus elsewhere exhorts His followers to love their enemies. So now He demands that they hate family and friends? How should this be understood? Much like His shocking command to tear out an eye “that causes you to sin” (Matt 5:29), Jesus’ command to “hate” one’s family is not about emotions—He is not telling His disciples to feel hatred or disdain for those we do and should love—but about right relationships and priorities.
Those who follow Christ have entered into a new family and participate in the life of the Kingdom of God. To put anything before the King, including our own life, indicates that we are not as committed as we should be.
“Christ is the center of all Christian life,” states the Catechism of the Catholic Church. “The bond with him takes precedence over all other bonds, familial or social” (CCC 1618). When our love for the Master is our top priority, then we are able to love family, friends, neighbors, and even our enemies with a godly and sacrificial love.
This teaching would have been especially troubling to most first-century Jews, who placed a high value on strong family ties and derived much of their sense of belonging, both in social and religious terms, from their ethnicity. But as Jesus made increasingly evident, the new covenant and the new family of God have no use for social or ethnic distinctions. “There is neither Jew nor Greek,” wrote Paul to the Galatians, “there is neither slave nor free person, there is not male or female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus” (Gal 3:28).
Today’s reading from Paul’s short letter to Philemon regarding the runaway slave Onesimus is a demonstration of the love that Christians should have for one another. The Apostle is unable to overturn the institution of slavery, but he asks Philemon to no longer consider Onesimus a slave, but a brother in the Lord.
Paul, along with the other apostles, is an example of true discipleship. Although he could have been a respected and established rabbi, he counted that position to be worthless in the light of following Jesus. Instead of social respect, he took up the cross that was given to him and endured persecution, beatings, and, finally, martyrdom. Possessing talent and abilities that could have brought financial comfort, he renounced possessions so he could preach the fullness of the Gospel.
Paul was not a televangelist, but a true evangelist who did not avoid the difficult words of Jesus, but heard them, loved them, and lived them.
(This “Opening the Word” column originally appeared in the September 9, 2007, issue of Our Sunday Visitor newspaper.)
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“Half-jokingly observing that the only topics the preacher never discussed for fear of offending his listeners were Jesus, sin, salvation, hell, Cross, Satan, and the Final Judgment” is a reminder of Anastasiya Osipova’s wet humor. Laughter through tears. And isn’t this what most have been hearing for decades now from the pulpit?
Hating the ones we love is semitic hyperbole in one context. Actually in reference to our indebted deference to God it’s true. Infinite good, pure love demands that definitive decision from us. No one, nothing is worthy of being a barrier to our admonition to love God with all our heart and soul.
Although is this a negative thing? No. Olson gives reason why, that exclusively through this total giving of self to God through the person of Christ “we are able to love family, friends, neighbors, and even our enemies with a godly and sacrificial love”. To love like God is to be loved by God.
As a creature, it is far above my pay-grade to love like God, hence I am called to love God IAW with the Greatest Commandment with my entire heart, mind and soul in thought, word and deed in the Order of Love. In God’s Love for all men from all times He desires that all men spend eternity with Him this each are called to love all men that each spends eternity with Him, though as a creature I am confined to do so in accordance with the Order of Love. I can love my enemies in believing that God & I both desire each to spend eternity with Him.
The hearts and minds of almost all Catholics is their worship and adoration to the creature Mary and their “good works” to get them to heaven. Trusting in Jesus alone and His work on the cross as the only way to get to heaven is scarcely taught, but not fully believed by many.
The troll strikes again!
I’m glad you keep coming back to a Catholic site Mr. Brian. I’m praying for you. God bless!
🙏
In John 19:25-27 Christ called John son and Mary mother, nowhere in this passage is John’s name mentioned, I checked many popular Bible translations and this is so for all of them. Son and mother are descriptions of family relationships. Read Matthew 12:46-50 about brother sister and mother where Christ was describing the family of God. If you call Christ your Brother and claim membership in the family of God, then Mary is your mother. God made sure that Mary had a provider and protector in St. Joseph, Christ’s foster father. This was also was done at the foot of the Cross to provide for His mother. Jesus, Mary and Joseph are called the Holy Family. Your problem is that anything that you say about Mary often applies to Christ. Was the message delivered by Gabriel a common event? Was Mary being overshadowed by the Holy Spirit and having the Son of God incarnated in her womb a common event? To listen to the people who are dismissive of Mary, the Annunciation and the Incarnation, with the overshadowing of the Holy Spirit, were a dime-a-dozen. You are also criticizing God’s taste in women. I’m willing to accept my spiritual membership through adoption in God’s Holy Family and Mary as my spiritual mother. The alternative is disowning Christ as Brother and the disowning the family of God. If you want to keep on being dismissive of Mary, what are you going to say to the Holy Spirit about His unique work that was done during the Incarnation when you see Him in the next world? You are also going to have to explain to Jesus why His mother, acceptable to Him, is so unacceptable you.
Loved the comment by Niebuhr!! The problem is that for many decades our priests have not preached about sin, morals, or the need for confession. Understandably they are afraid of blow-back to the Bishop by irate and offended church-goers. The problem is the Bishop should be applauding those priests brave enough to speak the truth. Sin does indeed exist. . Jesus himself talked a great deal about the need for forgiveness. If you believe that you have never sinned, what exactly is he forgiving?? God is not a version of a jolly Santa Clause and you mis-direct your fellow Catholics if thats what you lead them to believe. Jesus appeared to talk about sin and its consequences more than once.