WISDOM 9: 13-18
PSALM 89: 3-6, 12-14, 17 R. v. 1
PHILEMON 9-10, 12-17
LUKE 14: 25-33
As we celebrate Father’s Day today/tomorrow, our Gospel reading seems to be inappropriate.
However in fact it is quite apt. Today’s reading is a continuation of Jesus’ teaching in Luke’s Gospel about Christian discipleship. Here, Jesus stresses that the essential condition for discipleship is total dedication and commitment to Christ. it is not that Jesus is asking us to hate father, mother, sister, brother or ourselves. In the Hebrew language of his time, there was no phrase for a “loving less”. Maybe even that can seem a bit harsh.
But Jesus is stressing the priority of our relationship with God over others. In the parables that follows, Jesus stresses that unless we can truly make a commitment of our faith in God, we risk being drawn away from God by other attractions. God must come first before all else for only God gives true life.
There is wisdom in today’s Gospel about the truth and beauty of Christian discipleship. It is when we place God first in our lives, that everyone, our family and everything else, which is also important to us, take a whole new meaning. Instead of allowing the pursuit of our career, social life, family and material goods distract us from our relationship from God, Jesus is inviting us to make God the centre of all these aspects of our lives.
When God becomes the centre of our family for instance, then the family becomes the source of our experience of God’s love, filled with God’s grace. When we bring God into our work, our attitude towards work takes on a Christian dimension. Work does not become a drudge but an occasion to be a witness to God in our joy and thanksgiving. Even as a priest, I must remind myself that it is God’s work I do, and when I offer my ministry to God in prayer, I am amazed what God does even through my own weakness.
As we celebrate Father’s Day today, today’s message about Christian discipleship is also applicable to the role of fathers. As in a family, when the father places their family above all else, their work, their hobbies and their desires, it is their family that is transformed by the father’s commitment to them. And when the father places God first above all else, their fatherhood is also transformed, their family life takes on a new and deeper meaning.
Make your fatherhood as an offering to God. Offering yourself to God is like Jesus offering his life for us, trusting in his Father in following His way.
You can become the best father by becoming the best Christian that you can be.
Merredin Catholic Parish 