Daily Catholic Reflection: November 4, 2020, Memorial of Saint Charles Borromeo, bishop, Year A

Philippians 2: 12-18,

Psalm 27:1.4.13-14,

Luke 14:25-33 Full Readings

Saint Charles Borromeo

 Counting the Coast

Jesus does not pull his punches, and here delivers a series of devastating body-blows to anyone who is looking for easy discipleship. All through this journey up to Jesus’ own death at Jerusalem the cost of discipleship has been a recurrent theme: ‘Let the dead bury their dead’, the Parable of the Rich Fool, ‘From one to whom much has been entrusted, even more will be demanded’, ‘Father against son, son against father’, and now ‘Hate father and mother’ and ‘Give up all your possessions’. A certain amount of the vigour of these demands may be attributed to a Semitic mode of expression, ease of superlatives and lack of comparatives, but there is no doubt about the absolute demands made on the disciple. When Jesus made these demands he knew what lay ahead of him, and was only asking his disciples to follow his own course. We must count the cost before beginning to build the tower. Most of us have, of course, already started to build the tower. There is no turning back from the plough, only prayer for courage and loyalty which exceed our own powers.

In the Gospel today, we see two prominent aspects. Hating one's family and counting the cost before setting your eyes on doing something. When we don't count the cost and see if we can manage, then people will laugh at us and become embarrassed. These two aspects are very important not only for our spiritual life but also for our daily community living.

Firstly Jesus says that unless you hate your family, you cannot be his true disciple. This can easily be misunderstood unless we understand the meaning of hate in the Bible. Hate in the Bible is not a feeling of resentment, anger, malice, violence or even wishing the other bad, it is referred to as preferring less. Jesus therefore is saying that the first preference should be God, nothing should come in our way of serving God even our families. The first priority should be God and then then families and others can follow. This scripture is therefore not an excuse to treat those in the family, nor anyone else, with spite, harshness, malice or the like.  It is not an excuse to let the passion of anger well up in us.  But it is a call from God to act in justice and truth and to refuse to allow anything to separate us from the love of God.

Secondly, Jesus encourages us to count the cost. This is an ordinary common sense which Jesus used to pass his message. Nobody would go to shop without a budget, nobody would start building without enough money and others, otherwise, you become embarrassed. This is so too when one decides to become a Christian. There is no Christianity without a cost, otherwise it is not true Christianity.

There's no cheap grace brethren, we have to work for it. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a German pastor who died for his faith under the Nazi persecution of Jews and Christians, contrasted cheap grace andcostly grace: "Cheap grace is the grace we bestow on ourselves... the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance... grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate... Costly grace is the Gospel which must be sought again and again, the gift which must be asked for, the door at which a man must knock. Such grace is costly because it calls us to follow Jesus Christ. It is costly because it costs a man his life, and it is grace because it gives a man the only true life."

Reflect today on these two important aspects in the Gospel today, preferring God first and counting the cost. For the sake of Christ are you ready to give up everything and follow him? Pray for the enlightenment from the Spirit.

 Let us Pray.

Lord, help me always to love you more than anybody else so that I may truly become your disciple sbd help me to embrace the cost involved in discipleship with humility and love. Amen

Be blessed