“Jesus said to his Apostles: ‘Whoever does not take up his cross and follow after me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.’ ”
In today’s Gospel reading, Jesus tells his disciples about the conditions of discipleship. Rather than bringing peace upon the earth, Jesus says that he has come “to set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother . . . and one’s enemies will be those of the household.” In that is the sword. The kind of division that Jesus brings results from placing father or mother or son or daughter above God.
Thank you God for sending your Son to draw a line in the sand, not to cause division but to show the way to everlasting life: “Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” If Jesus was not the Son of God, he was a lunatic for saying, “Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me.” How else could he put loving him before loving mother or father or son or daughter?
In quiet moments set aside to spend time with God alone, my mind wanders all over the place. “Oh, the things I’ll do today,” it seems to say. I have to smile in the silence, not because I know I’ll find a way to accomplish all of my goals but because if I smile, maybe that will help me recall that I am in the presence of God alone in that moment. Sometimes that works, sometimes it doesn’t, but God stays put while I try to find him.
Is there one way I can think of to love God above all else today? Could it be fasting or going to adoration or putting my work aside to say a prayer in the afternoon? Today, the memorial of Saint Benedict, could it be that I offer my works, joys, and sufferings this day in union with the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass throughout the world. Let me recall Saint Benedict’s wisdom in ora et labora (pray and work).