Your Child Says “I Hate You”, Parents July 30, 2024. 

[Jesus said], “If anyone comes to me without hating his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple”.      Luke 14:26.

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I would not mind making a tiny bet on which word you found to be the most challenging in today’s readings; there it is up there in quotes. Specifically, the world “hate”. I looked up the Greek in the original passage in Luke, 14:26, most carefully. It is definitely the word μισώ, misō, “hate” (and it’s the same word in modern Greek). And we have words in English which link to it: Misanthrope, hatred of mankind; misogyny, hatred of women. It means hate alright, even 2000 years ago when the Lord uttered it. And traditionally the opposite of hate is… love (or, possibly, indifference). So we have a real challenge here. Is Jesus really telling us to hate everyone we love? Well, clearly not. I think the Lord is, in a sense, pulling our communal leg. Do you recall these moments from the gospel:

First take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye; Matthew 7:3-5.

It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God;  Matthew 19:24.

If your hand causes you to stumble, cut it off;     Mark 9:43

And we do it all the time in common everyday language:

If I’ve told you once, I’ve told you a million times: Don’t do that!  (A million times???).

I’m so hungry I could eat a horse….

This shirt cost me an arm and a leg….

All that is done simply to hammer home a point, called hyperbole, in other words, exaggerated statements or claims not meant to be taken literally. We get the word hype from the same root. And Jesus must have been doing exactly that in today’s gospel – and the other gospel passages mentioned above. It is critical, he is saying, that you hear what I say, implement what I say and remain always true to what I say. Why? Because there is eternal life in my words (and this time it is not hyperbole). But his language is extremely strong; indeed it is difficult to state it in any stronger way! There must be nothing standing in the way between each of us and him, the one who invites us to eternal life and happiness. 

The rest of today’s gospel is also a little difficult to understand. First there is a man who sets out to build a tower, and figures out ahead of time to see if he has sufficient resources to complete it. If he does not, but still goes ahead but is unable to complete it, he will be subject to ridicule and mockery. Or if a king, going out to battle an enemy, will be foolish not to carefully calculate if he has any realistic chance of defeating his enemy. If not, deal with the problem more realistically. We, for our part, are looking at life and wondering if we will end up happily – or not. And Jesus answers that question for us: if we accept and live by what he offers, we will be happy. If not, then we will allow our worries and cares, our worldly problems, to overwhelm us, dominate us and drag us down. Paul, in the second reading, was indeed dealing with the end of his life and the worries and challenges that situation presented. He dealt with them in the most charitable way possible, helping others by sending Onesimus to them, someone he treasures as his own son, yet deciding others have greater needs than he. It is just such worries, challenges and obstacles that the Book of Wisdom deals with in the first reading. We earthly creatures, weighed down by our earthly concerns, should always turn to the Lord God, whose Holy Spirit is sent to us, and then because of that, our pathway is straightened, our goal clear and God’s wisdom is available for the asking, along with the power to make it happen. And so all three readings coalesce and our choices and direction become clear and possible. That anything is possible with God! But Jesus, as always, does not hide that good news in cotton wool: “Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple”. So it is not a fairy tale he is giving us, quite the contrary. There will be challenges galore he seems to be saying, temptations to betray his teachings. Even your own family, he seems to suggest, might try to divert you from the true way. And remembering the early church and its persecution by the state and the terrible punishments which threatened the lives of those early Christians, he was not hiding the cost of being his follower. It is almost as if he knew what would eventually happen to those who accepted him and followed his example. Today, though, it is mostly indifference, disinterest, distraction – call it what you will – which separate his message from the lives of many people. So it is up to each one of us to display his message loud and clear in our lives, our actions, our words and our attitudes. And, in doing that fully, we might well risk ridicule and mockery. But with our Savior standing beside us, we are not alone, and will withstand the mighty gales of indifference and the earthquakes of ignorance! 

Help Club for Moms, Teaching Children that Nothing is Impossible with God.

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