Wednesday of the
Thirty-first Week in Ordinary time
(Philippians 2:12-18; Luke 14:25-33)
Is Jesus really asking people to hate their own
family? Of course, he isn’t. Aramaic, the language of Jesus, did not use
comparatives so that one could say, “You must love me, more than them.” In Aramaic to mean that, one has to say, “You
must hate them and love me.” But can
people love Christ more than their parents or their spouses?
Christ walked the earth two thousand years ago. There are no photographs of him. Even the words of his preaching were changed before
being written down a generation after his death. Furthermore, he is one man among billions
that have existed. It seems impossible
to have a personal relation with him.
To the objections, we can answer: “Yes,” “yes,” “yes,” and
“yes, but we can still draw close to Christ.”
He does have a human nature but, more to the point, he is divine. As our Creator, we know him as good beyond
all telling. As our Savior, we sense the
perfect symmetry of his wisdom and his sacrifice. He presents himself to us in the Eucharist. There he not only lifts our souls to himself
but also connects us with one another.
