WE should have no doubt about this. We may at first be scared when Christ told his disciples, and now us, “If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children and brethren, and sisters, yes and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple. And whosoever does not carry his cross and come after me, cannot be my disciple.” (Lk 14,26-27)
We have to be most careful when considering these strong words of Christ who even went to the extent of commanding us to love our enemies. What he is actually trying to tell us that is that for us to be truly his disciple, to be fully identified with him, especially in the task of continuing the work of human redemption, we have to give our all to him. Nothing and no one should undermine that proper relation we ought to have with him.
We have been assured that as long as we are with him, everything else in our life will be taken care of. “Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness,” he said, “and all these things shall be added to you. Therefore, do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.” (Mt 6,33-34)
God, who created everything and loves them all the way, even to the extent of becoming man and offering his life for us and for our sins, cannot tell us to hate anyone or anything. When Christ says about “hate,” referring to our parents and loved ones, he must have meant it as us not making anyone and anything to undermine our love for him.
To be a true disciple of Christ, to be a full Christian as we should be, involves a certain detachment from people and things, a certain emptying of ourselves to be properly filled with what is proper to us—the very spirit of God in whose image and likeness we have been created, and in whose life and nature we meant to share.
Yes, in a certain sense, our life here on earth can be described as a matter of emptying ourselves of our own selves, of our own egos, and of any worldly attachment, so we can be filled with God, with love, which is what is proper to us.
We can somehow know that we are truly emptying ourselves properly when we can also see a certain growth of love and practical concern for the others, even if great sacrifices are involved. It’s when we would be willing to complicate our life for God and for the others that we can say we properly emptying ourselves and filling ourselves with the spirit of God.
To be sure, to give ourselves completely to God and to others is not easy. We need nothing less than the grace of God and our generous and prompt correspondence to it. But it’s not impossible.
We just have to learn to give ourselves to God and others more and more each day. We can ask ourselves, for example, “Today, what can I give more to God and to the others?” “What else have I been keeping to myself rather than giving it away to God and to the others?”
For sure, we will have some answers to those questions and start to act on them. In this way, the attitude and practice of giving our all, even if in instalment basis, can be achieved.
Let us not fail to see the best deal Christ is proposing to us.
