You would think that, if Jesus wanted people to follow him - wanted people to hear the things he had to say - then he wouldn't say shocking things like what we hear in today's gospel.
St. Luke writes that "great crowds" were following him on his way to Jerusalem. He had captured the imagination and enthusiasm of all these people, but then he turns around and proclaims the rather surprising speech that we just heard.
First he says, "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."
What does this mean? Doesn't Jesus want us to love our family members? - in fact, honoring our parents is one of the commandments! Am I really supposed to "hate me own life"?
What Jesus is telling us is that anything, even the most cherished people and things in our lives, can become an obstacle to our spiritual life.
Jesus must be our priority. Jesus must come first.
That is not a rejection of human love - it puts it in its proper place.
In his homily at the Prayer Vigil for Peace in Rome tonight, Pope Francis said:
"When man thinks only of himself, of his own interests and places himself in the centre, when he permits himself to be captivated by the idols of dominion and power, when he puts himself in God’s place, then all relationships are broken and everything is ruined ..."
Only when I love God above all things can I love the other people in my life the way they deserve to be loved. When I see God as the creator and savior of all, then I can treat people as the beloved children of God that they are.
Jesus tells us to "hate" these relationships in the sense that we should reject anything that leads us away from him.
Secondly, he tells the crowds, "Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple."
For the people of Jesus' time, the cross was a symbol of shame and oppression. It was the tool that their Roman conquerors used to punish criminals - not something that anyone should desire or take up willingly.
But Jesus transformed the cross. By voluntarily taking it up and giving his life, Jesus made it into a symbol of hope, a symbol of life conquering death. We should remember that every time we make the sign of the cross on our own bodies: by giving up his life, Jesus gives us the chance to live in communion with God.
To be his disciples means embracing the cross everyday - freely offering our entire lives to him. Our crosses may look like disease. They may look like broken relationships or difficult situations. Our crosses may be dealing with people who hate us or people we hate. They may be our failures to fight against the sin in our lives.
To be a disciple means to embrace every situation in our life with the same self-giving love that Jesus had on the cross.
When we carry our crosses with that love, they aren't just bad things that have happened to us, but moments of grace - moments when we allow the love of God to transform even the darkest parts of the world.
There is no passage in the Bible where Jesus says being his disciple would be easy. That's why he uses the images of building a tower and fighting a war in this gospel: discipleship is hard, it's a battle, it takes work - we should never forget that.
But when we enter the life of being a disciple of Christ, we are given the Wisdom of God, the Holy Spirit who inspires us and strengthens us.
We are never alone. God is with us in this fight.
Trust in Him. Rely on Him. And live for Him.
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