Fr Robert Hendrickson

Dear Friends in Christ,

The Gospel today is one of those challenging ones that comes to mind when people lapse into thinking Jesus was always warm and friendly. He tells his followers, “Whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and even life itself, cannot be my disciple.”

Well. It doesn’t get much more bracing than this, does it?

Jesus speaks to the unity we should have with him and with one another—a unity that transcends and surpasses all those others we have known. He calls on us to be ready to follow him in such a way that our old life and its entanglements are left behind.

It sounds so hard, doesn’t it? But how many of us have chased something that annoyed our family at some point? Maybe you went to a college they didn’t want you to go to. Maybe you chased after a boy or a girl in some far-flung place. Maybe you married someone they didn’t approve of. Maybe you just dared to be who you are rather than who they told you that you should be.

The point is we make choices all the time that put our relationships at risk. We make those choices for all sorts of reasons that are good, bad, or in between. We make those choices because we think we know what’s best.

Jesus is telling us, “I know what is best for you—and it is me. It is my father.” Ultimately, Jesus is giving us both a warning and a promise. He says that we can’t follow him if we’re not ready to leave behind what might hold us back. And he promises that if we follow him, we can leave behind what might hold us back.

In choosing to follow we are choosing what is best for us and it will mean leaving behind that which will try to pin us down. It’s a daunting, fearful, faithful promise. Jesus isn’t being nice here. He’s being what we most need. He’s being truth.

Yours in Christ,

Fr Robert