Gospel Reflection 2021/2022

Christianity: a religion of love.

‘Deus caritas est.’ [Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI]

The very foundation of Christianity is ‘Deus caritas est’, which means ‘God is love’ [cf. 1 Jn 4: 7-21].

St John [cf. 1 Jn 4: 7-21] deliberately says, “God IS love,” and not “God is LIKE love” – because for St John, God’s very nature, His very essence and His very being is love.

Christianity: truly a religion of love?

However, in the Gospel reading of the 23^rd Sunday in the Ordinary Time, Jesus drops a bombshell [Lk 14: 26-27] that has left tongues wagging and jaws dropping: “If any man comes to Me without HATING his father, mother, wife, children, brothers, sisters, yes and his own life too, he cannot be My disciple. Anyone who does not carry his cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple.”

Is Jesus contradicting Himself? How can Jesus, on one hand, command us to love; and yet on the other hand, command us to hate?

Perhaps what Jesus says in the Gospel according to Matthew [Mt 10: 37-39], would shed light on this and clarify our doubts, “Whoever loves father or mother MORE THAN me is not worthy of Me; and whoever loves son or daughter MORE THAN Me is not worthy of Me; and whoever does not take up the cross and follow Me is not worthy of Me. Those who find their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for My sake will find it.”

Jesus is asking us, “Who do you LOVE MORE?”

Christian discipleship must be first and foremost motivated by our LOVE FOR CHRIST.

Every year, many adult inquirers throng to RCIA (the Rite of Christian Initiation for Adults) to seek Baptism to become the disciples of Jesus in the Catholic Church. Although the Catholic Church welcomes new members, the Catholic Church does not simply baptise everyone who comes seeking Baptism.

Every adult inquirer who seeks Baptism must embark on a journey of catechesis and the formation of heart and mind; he must express and re-express, examine and re-examine his DESIRE and LOVE for Christ and His Church through a series of rites, prayers, reflections, interviews and/or retreats. At the heart of the RCIA journey is the person of Jesus Christ: every adult inquirer is to get to know Christ and hopefully fall in love with Him.

It may seem boastful, but unlike all other religions in the world, Christian discipleship must be first and foremost motivated by our LOVE FOR CHRIST. And therefore, the Catholic Church is very serious about ‘making disciples’. If a person seeks Baptism, simply because his spouse/child is a Catholic, or because a Christian funeral is much cheaper and more cost-saving… these are definitely NOT the right motivations to be a Catholic.

Christian discipleship must be fuelled by our INTENSE LOVE FOR CHRIST.

If we think the Catholic Church is ‘demanding’, remember this: our Lord Jesus Christ is even more ‘demanding’.

Our Lord Jesus is ‘demanding’ us to

(1) Love Him ABOVE ALL: As faithful disciples of Jesus, the priority of Christ must take precedence over everything else! Jesus must be at the top of our ‘To-Love List’: we must ‘love Him with all our heart, and with all our soul, and with all our mind’ [Mt 22: 37].

(2) Love Him SIGNIFICANTLY AND EXCEEDINGLY MORE: We must love Jesus significantly and exceedingly more than our love for our parents, our siblings, our children, our family members, our relationships, our health and wealth, our fame and fortune, our power, position, possessions, reputation and influence… and even life itself. Our love for Christ must be so significantly and exceedingly more – that our love for all other things pales in comparison – so much so that it seems we ‘hate’ all other things.

A disciple – who does not love Christ ABOVE ALL and love Him SIGNIFICANTLY AND EXCEEDINGLY MORE – is not worthy of Christ and is not a disciple after all.

Christian discipleship comes at a COST.

Jesus has not proclaimed a ‘Gospel of Prosperity’; neither has He promised us a rose garden or an easy life. Instead, He has told us to ‘deny ourselves and take up our cross daily and follow Him’ [Lk 9: 23]. Without mincing His words, he blatantly tells us [Lk 14: 27], “Anyone who does not carry his cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple.” Yes, Christian discipleship comes at a cost: there is no true love without sacrifice; and there is no genuine discipleship without the cross.

As Mother Teresa of Calcutta would say, “If you really love…, you will not be able to avoid making sacrifices,” and “a sacrifice to be real must cost, must hurt, must empty ourselves.

A mother would do everything for her child out of great love. She is even willing to die for her child. If we really love Christ significantly and exceedingly more, what would we be willing to do for Christ?

Christian discipleship requires an INFORMED DECISION.

Jesus wants us to be informed and ‘count’ the cost of discipleship.

‘Counting the cost’ here does not mean to be ‘calculative with God’. Rather, ‘counting the cost’ here means to know, to calculate and to be prepared for whatever sacrifices required of us.

He does not want half-hearted, half-way and half-baked disciples. And to illustrate this He uses the parables of ‘tower building’ and ‘going to war’. He wants us to make an informed decision to love Him. He wants us to willingly embrace our cross to follow Him. Whether it is in good times or in bad, in sickness or in health, in riches or in poverty, in glory or in shame, in joy or in suffering, Jesus wants us to persevere to the end.

Christian discipleship calls for CONCRETE ACTION.

Christian discipleship does not subscribe to pessimism (despair), pacifism (condoning evil) or passivism (laziness).

As faithful disciples of the Lord, this is our cross! We are called to:

(1) Build a tower: Establish, expand and extend the Kingdom of God here and now so that God’s love, justice, peace and truth may reign in our hearts, in our minds, in our lives, in our societies, in our workplaces, in our marketplaces, in our country and in the world.

(2) Wage ‘war against evil’: Always renounce evil and fight evil. As Christians, we are never called to compromise with evil, condone evil or co-exist with evil. We are called to overcome evil with good, overcome ignorance with truth, overcome sins with virtues, overcome hate with love, overcome corruption with transparency, overcome injustice with good governance, and overcome darkness with light.

"The Christian of the future will be a mystic, or nothing at all." [Fr Karl Rahner, SJ]

According to Fr Karl Rahner, the famous German Jesuit priest and theologian, “The Christian of the future will be a mystic, or nothing at all.” It means to say that unless we are deeply and profoundly in LOVE with God, we will be nothing at all.

Jesus Himself insists on these clear conditions for being His disciples: preferring nothing to the LOVE OF CHRIST, embrace our CROSS faithfully, and FOLLOW Him. Jesus is very clear about this: if we cannot meet these conditions, we are not worthy of Him! Be warned, if we cannot meet these conditions, we are not His disciples: we are nothing at all!

Let us get to know Jesus MORE dearly, love Him MORE intensely, follow Him MORE closely, and serve Him MORE passionately.

Let our fervent prayer be:

“I want to fall deeply in love with Thee, O Lord.”