Wednesday of the Thirty-first Week in Ordinary Time
(Romans 13:8-10; Luke 14:25-33)
Social commentator Mary Eberstadt recently published an
essay on antisemitism. She wrote that
Catholics who hate Jews can say all the novenas they wish, but they still risk damnation. In today’s readings Jesus and his apostle
Paul make a similar point.
Great crowds are following Jesus. Why not?
He is an arresting preacher and a miraculous healer. Jesus, however, is not interested in a large
following. He wants personal conversion,
away from sin and to his way of charity.
Out of this concern he challenges the multitude. They must love him more than their own family
members, indeed, more than their own selves.
Paul gives the gist of this preference when he writes, “You shall love
your neighbor as yourself.”
Challenging stuff, this demand to love. We cannot meet it always thinking of how
others may have hurt us. We must ask
ourselves frequently and honestly how we affect others. Then we must resolve to love others almost as
much as we love God, our Creator and Savior.
