“I nearly died laughing!” We use expressions like that, but are they really true? No matter how hard I laughed, I’d didn’t come close to dying.
“This book saved my life!” We use an expression like that, but is it really true? Can a book as a book, really save your life? These are hyperbolic expressions of speech.
This is what Jesus starts off using in today’s Gospel (Luke 14:25-33) a hyperbolic expression. “If anyone comes to me without hating his mother and his father, his wife and his children, his brothers and his sisters, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.”
Jesus does not want us to hate all those family members. Jesus is using a hyperbolic expression to make a point and to reveal an underlying truth. He is telling us that it is not the blood relationship of family members that binds us to Jesus. It is our own obedient response to the Word he gives us in the Gospel message that binds us to him and makes us his disciples.
Jesus is telling us that we have to pay the price, the full price, to be a Christian and to be a follower and a disciple of Jesus.
The Love that Counts is the Love that Costs.
And the Love that Costs is the Love that Counts.
Let’s stop to think of the times in our lives that we listened to these words of Jesus and followed them. It wound up costing us, really costing us – money, our reputation, a promotion, a friendship, or peace at home. How many examples can we think of?
One day I got a call from a friend of mine named Tom. He owns a TV production company that does infomercials. Someone wanted him to do a questionable infomercial. I checked with a couple of Catholic moralists I know. I wound up telling Tom that the informercial was against Catholic teaching. He did not do the infomercial. It cost Tom a lot of money.
I know a number of people who have been out of work for several years. Why? They refused to look the other way when unethical things were going on at work. So they got fired.
When was the last time you or I told someone, “You know you’ve got a lot of prejudice and hate against people of color, gays and certain politicians?” When I told my Dad this when he put down people of color, he told me: “Don’t preach to me, save it for the people on Sunday!”
The Love that Counts is the Love that Costs.
The Love that Costs is the Love that Counts.
Then Jesus brings up what our nation and you and I are struggling with today. “Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Won’t you first sit down and estimate the cost to see if you have enough money to complete it? If you lay the foundation and can’t finish it, people will ridicule you and say, ‘This one began to build and wasn’t able to finish.’
“Or a king is about to go to war against another king. Won’t he first sit down and see if he has enough resources to fight the forces coming against him?” “In the same way,” Jesus says, “If you do not give up everything you have, you cannot be my disciple.”
What Jesus is saying to you and to me is – You’ve got to have a PLAN. People who fail to plan, PLAN TO FAIL.
How much time do you spend planning your life? Many people spend more time planning for their vacation than they do planning for their life. We’re so busy. We don’t think about the things that really matter.
Question: What will be your legacy when you are gone? Will it be just the family and the friends you leave behind you? How will other people remember you?
Wow!! Did she have a temper!
All he ever did was work, work, work!
He always had his eyes glued to his smart phone, the computer screen, the TV.
She always had a chip on her shoulder. You could never please her!
He always went out of his way to help you. You never even had to ask him!
She never thought about herself. Whatever you needed….She was right there for you!
He went through a lot of heartache and pain in his life, but he never complained!
She had the patience of a saint!
The Love that Counts is the Love that Costs.
The Love that Costs is the Love that Counts.
What will people remember about YOU when YOU are gone? What are YOU doing to do about YOUR legacy today?
CONSIDER HOW PRECIOUS YOUR SOUL MUST BE, WHEN BOTH GOD AND THE DEVIL ARE AFTER IT!!
