Gospel for the Day with Pointers

Thursday, 31st July,2014

St Ignatius of Loyola

Lk 14:25-30.33

Great crowds accompanied Jesus on his way and he turned and spoke to them. ‘Anyone who comes to me without hating father, mother, wife, children, brothers, sisters, yes and his own life too, cannot be my disciple. No one who does not carry his cross and come after me can be my disciple. 

‘And indeed, which of you here, intending to build a tower, would not first sit down and work out the cost to see if he had enough to complete it? Otherwise,  if he laid the foundation and then found himself unable to finish the work, anyone who saw it would start making fun of him and saying, “Here is someone who started to build and was unable to finish.” 

‘So in the same way, none of you can be my disciple without giving up all that he owns.’

• •Jesus’ words in today’s Gospel are not meant to be taken literally.  He wants us to understand that our love for God should be our greatest love.  
  
  
• •Most Christians would profess that they know Christ, but “Do they really know Him personally?”  Do we follow Christ at ‘a distance’?  How willing are we to help Him carry His Cross?
  
  
• •Our Lord is challenging us to strengthen the foundation of our faith in Him.  To do this, we need to ponder on and face the truth of the cost of being His true disciple, not merely paying Him with ‘lip service.’