[AI translation] These are astonishingly unusual, even repulsive words from the mouth of Jesus, Who lives in the public consciousness of believers as the embodiment of love, goodness, patience, mercy! It's as if he himself were making counter-propaganda... The One who on another occasion called the multitudes to Himself, "Come to Me, all you who are weary...", now seems to be deliberately frightening people away from Himself. Instead of calling the multitudes, he almost sends them away from himself. At other times he encourages, "I will give you eternal life", and now he warns, "Consider carefully what this life will cost you - can you pay the price to follow me?! Instead of inspiring me, he almost puts the brakes on! According to the Gospel account, Jesus spoke such strange words when there were crowds of people going to see Him, when there were crowds of people around Him, when there were crowds of people hanging on His words, when the opportunity for a crowd success was at its best, and it was at this time that He cooled the enthusiasm, saying, "Watch out! In any case, he does the opposite of what popular orators usually do.Perhaps we should ask another question first: what was that great crowd of people doing with Jesus? Well, here the parable comes very close to us. For even today there are many, many people who, although they do not bother themselves much about what God has to say about their lives, still want to keep in touch with the holy things, however thinly. He even goes to church sometimes, because the sound of the organ and the different atmosphere has such a good effect on his nerves... He doesn't want to be completely separated from the world of God and totally immersed in a world alienated from God. As an assurance that when all other ropes have been cut, he still has a little bit of religiosity in his heart somewhere... Then there are other kinds of people in the crowd around Jesus. People who walk two paths. People who are very keen to listen to a sermon, who are sometimes strongly influenced by it, but the next day, when they go to work, they are not influenced by the Word they heard on Sunday or read in the morning. The church and the world are two different worlds for them, two different worlds of faith in God and two different worlds of everyday life that have nothing to do with each other... Out in the world, the other person is a colleague or a competitor, but not the neighbour in whom Jesus comes to them. So people who never reckon with the fact that: Where do I really stand? - To whom do I really belong? - To God, or maybe not quite? Do I really belong to Jesus from the very beginning, or only half-way? Have I already settled what it means to follow him?
Yes, this is the kind of people Jesus sees around him. That's who the churches are full of. Maybe this one too! Here in Pasarete! And Jesus also sees that these people are actually unhappy. Simply because their hearts are divided. They want God, but only a little! And this little bit is just enough to make their consciences uneasy and disturb their peace of mind. - Yes, we need something of God, but not so much as to hinder us from fulfilling our own heart's desires, and certainly not so much as to make us take a complete backward step in certain things. And it is by this that the spiritual balance is tipped. For he who swings back and forth between God and the world, who limps in two directions, who walks two paths, who wants to live a life that is part believer and part worldly: he will most certainly be unhappy.
To want just a little bit of God, to want a little bit of eternity, is a very dangerous thing, because that little bit is only good for making a man restless. If someone is half-Christian, half-Christian, then the consequences are twofold: one is that he thinks enviously of the other, the total unbeliever, that he has everything free, that he does not bother himself with conflicts of conscience if he has to run over the person in his way, or has the opportunity to take advantage of an illegal affair or a little tax evasion... But the semi-Christian is inhibited, he has a crisis of conscience if he wants to do such things. But - and this is another - he is not so holy that he can at least have the joy and peace of communion with God to compensate his soul for the illicit pleasures instead of the illicit ones. He is not really at home either in the world or with God. Life in the world makes him restless, and life with God makes him gloomy and joyless. He is not really at ease in either one or the other - If he were truly, sincerely, wholly walking in God's way alone, he would be full of joy, purpose, determination, strength. But the one who does not desire God with all his heart always feels that God is for him only a brake, an obstacle, a hindrance. On the other hand, only those who desire Him with all their heart will experience that the relationship with God is the engine, the power, the liberation, the inspiration of their life, and that there is nothing in the world that makes them so joyful and happy as following Jesus.
So perhaps it becomes more understandable why Jesus would want to make such a radical choice for those who flock around him. It is like a doctor saying to a patient, "The only thing that can help is a radical operation" - so Jesus uses such harsh words because it is precisely from this semi-real state that he wants to deliver us. He says: If you want to follow me, and if you want to see some benefit from following me, then you will certainly have to give up certain things in your life, then there are things - perhaps a desire, or a feeling, or a secret relationship, or a passion, or a plan, or a fantasy - that will certainly have to be crucified, that will have to be put to death. For until you radically renounce everything that God sees in you as sin, you cannot be truly reconciled to God! "And if anyone," says Jesus, "does not bear his cross and come after me, he cannot be my disciple." Until then, you will always limp in two directions as a Christian and you cannot be truly reconciled to God or to yourself! So these harsh words of Jesus also come out of compassion, out of a fearful love for us. For he wants to take something away so that he can give much more, so that he can truly give everything! So he calls for a full and firm decision! Do we really want to be his disciples, or are we just benevolent inquirers, "Mitläufer"?
This may help us to understand Jesus' strictness. But even so, these words are so alarming: 'If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brother and sister, and even his own soul, he cannot be my disciple!' How can the same One who exhorts even the enemy to love Him, desire the hatred of those closest to Him, I believe Jesus deliberately chose this big word that is not His own mouth, somewhat like someone turning on a siren to warn of some danger with a fearful wail. Here too, Jesus wants to sound the alarm against an insidious danger! As if to say: Take a good look at your life and your relationship with your dearest ones, to see if there is anything in it that is distancing you from Me? Let's look at this: there are relationships where it is natural and self-evident that one has a loving relationship with another. Such is the relationship one has with one's parents, one's child, one's spouse, one's brother or sister, one's closest relatives. Well, but even in such a loving relationship, it is possible for man to be brought closer to God or to be moved away from God. The great Tempter can even use love to separate someone from God. Love is the highest feeling, and yet it can also be sinful and dangerous! And here we are not only talking about an illegal love-relationship, but also about the most legal one, like a mother's love for her child, or a husband's love for his wife, or a brother's love for his sister.
Of course, it is right to love one's mother, one's brother or one's child, but it is not the same how one loves! There is also love that is nothing but pure egoism, selfishness. There is a kind of parental monkey love that does more harm than good to your child. It spoils, pampers, pampering, pampering, protecting, protecting, doing everything for and instead of the child, so that he sees no need for anything. But does he have time to think about what is inside the child's soul? What is raging, what instincts and desires are developing... Have those we love most ever been prepared for what to do when they are confronted with sin, suffering, death, the great realities of life? Have we also tried to lead them to the Lord who can help them through these problems? Can we accept our loved ones from the hand of God as precious entrusted to us, who will one day have to be reckoned to the One who gave them to us? Well, is my love for my child or my spouse bringing me closer to God or taking me away from God?
A mother, for example, who has never given her child anything but the monkey-love care that her natural maternal instinct dictated, once that child is taken from her - perhaps by accident or illness - all she can do is weep and complain, "How could God allow this?" He who speaks like this: he loved his child more than God. But still: he who accepts his child daily from the hand of God - or even his partner, or his mother - who brings his beloved to God in prayer every day, and whose chief desire is that he too may walk in peace with God, finds peace in the certainty that his beloved is in a good place with the Father, even in the greatest loss! Such a parent loved his child not only with a natural, instinctive love, but also as a gift from God, over whom God, however, reserved the right to himself. It is not, therefore, a question of hating one's child or the one whom one ought to love, but of loving well, rightly - as in Christ. As Paul says many times so: "Beloved in Christ", as it were through Jesus. Those who let their feelings for their loved ones be purified through Jesus will experience the joy and happiness, the strength and positive help of loving others in this way!
Put not only your enemies, but also your loved ones into God's hands, whether they are still here on earth or beyond it in eternity, so that there is no barrier between you and God, and then you will experience that Jesus always returns to you the one you have given Him as something new and different, better, more beautiful, or still here on earth or in eternity. So let us not only lay down our sins before Him, but also our purest feelings, for even our love needs redeeming, our most natural affections are pure only through Jesus.
Well, yes: he who wants to build a tower, let him first make a budget; he who wants to wage war, let him weigh the possibilities; he who wants to follow Christ, let him calculate what it will cost him. Of course, things like peace of mind, a clear conscience, a life free of fears and worries: we would all be happy to accept such things. I have heard more than once an atheist say to a Christian: I actually envy your faith. You have Someone in heaven, Who thinks of you, To whom you can entrust yourself. Or at least you're happy to believe that, that you have Someone in heaven...! But we can't do it - without the cross! There are things in all of our lives that must be laid down, crucified, said goodbye to, sacrificed, even if God compensates us a hundredfold! "Seek ye first the kingdom of God," that is, submit yourselves first wholly to God, give yourselves first wholly to God, and then all things shall be given to you. Everything: a cleansed conscience, childlike carelessness, freedom from fear, a renewed attitude towards other people, a regained self-confidence and purpose in life, the pure enjoyment of all that is beautiful on this earth - all this will be given to you! Then we will see the birds in the sky with new eyes, and the clouds, and the air, and the flowers, and the people, and our destiny, and our loved ones, and our dead, and our enemies, and our neighbours - everything! Because everything is changed where Jesus is Lord! The eyes see differently and the heart beats differently. And in all that is painful and all that is difficult, a precious pierced hand reaches out to us, a hand that will never let go!
Amen.
My soul, full joy is yours,
Leave evil and care behind;
Be merry, if you feel it:
There is still work to be done and endured.
Think: who lives by his Spirit,
What a Father's smile;
Your Savior died for you:
Why should you grieve, heavenly son?
(Canticle 426, verse 3)
Date: 28 August 1966.
Lesson
Lk 14,25-33