“Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me….” (Matthew 10, 37-42)
For most of us, family comes first. And that is exactly why the (above) words of Jesus sound a bit extreme. Jesus, clearly, is not attacking family life. What He is saying is that all of our loyalties must give way to loyalty to God.
Further, all those who become followers of Jesus belong to “a new family.” It is a family where every single person, including relatives, friends, and even strangers are truly our brothers and sisters. Being Christians means we become part of a larger family to whom we also have responsibilities. Jesus knew well that there would be times when we would have to give more love and compassion to the hungry, the sick, those in prison, the social outcasts, the unemployed or the unemployable, the disabled, and the lonely than to the members of our own families of origin. Again, Jesus is not speaking against the family, but rather reminding us that we are part of a larger family, made up entirely of brothers and sisters – the human family.
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A story worth pondering this week: There is an old legend about Satan. One day he was having a yard sale. He thought he’d get rid of some of his old tools that were cluttering up the place. So he gathered up gossip, slander, adultery, lying, greed, hunger for power, and more and laid them out on tables. Interested buyers were crowding the tables, curious, handling the goods. One customer, however, strolled way back in the garage and found on a shelf a well-oiled and cared-for tool. He brought it out to Satan and inquired if it was for sale. “Oh, no!” Satan answered. “That’s my tool. Without it I couldn’t wreck the Church! It’s my secret weapon!” “But what is it?” the customer inquired. “It’s the tool of discouragement,” the devil said.
Indeed! In today’s Gospel, Jesus addresses our attitude toward those whom God sends among us and how we treat them. He speaks frankly about acceptance and rejection, about kindness and the lack of kindness, and about trust in God’s promises and the discouragement into which we can so easily fall. Don’t let the devil win! Make his tools, especially discouragement, useless.
