Reflection on Matthew 10:34-11-1

Rev. Marcel Divine Emeka Okwara, CSsR

Monday, July 14, 2020

Beloved in Christ, in today’s Gospel, Jesus demonstrates through his teaching that he is truly God and not just one among the many religious figures: Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. He also explains what discipleship entails: …and whoever does not take up his cross and follow after me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. You know, once we make the decision to follow Jesus, every other thing that we hold very dear must become secondary. All attachment, affinity, and loyalty must come fourth. Jesus must come first, second and third. Each of us has something we consider greatest. For some, it is money and material things, for others, it is power, fame, pleasure, and honor/adoration of others, yet, for others, it is love of country, love of ethnicity, and love of political party or political ideology. For many of us, the greatest is family and friends. 

Don’t get me wrong, none of these is bad. But, when we place any of them higher and above Jesus, that’s a problem. When we place any of them in the absolute center of our lives, they become our idols and our gods. The train of our spiritual life could miss its tracks, the boat of our life could capsize, the vehicle of our spiritual journey could break down halfway, and the airplane of our life’s journey could crash. Rather than owning the things of life, they own us. They become our masters and we their slaves. And when this happen, we drift, suffer defeat and disintegrate. 

Jesus, the greatest preacher of love for neighbor definitely wants us to love our parents, children, family, friends, neighbors and even enemies. He wants us to love our country and ethnicity too. He wants us to appreciate wealth because silver and gold comes from God, but we should love all these without absolutely attaching ourselves to them. We are to love all God’s creatures and not abuse them, but to exceedingly love the Creator. An absolute love for created things is a new form of slavery. To love creatures more than the Creator is a misguided love. So, to truly become Jesus’ disciples, we must be ready to practice distacco (detachment) in order to be ready for the mission. I love my family in Nigeria. It was not easy to leave them behind, especially my mother who was still alive when I first left Nigeria to come to America. Throughout my formation years in Nigeria, working as a Redemptorist priest in America never crossed my mind. I was actually excited when I initially learned that I would be working in the largest city and state in Nigeria (Lagos), but a few weeks to my priestly ordination, I was told by my superior to forget about my previous assignment and to get ready to work in America. My mother was not particularly pleased that I was reassigned to work overseas. But when the time came, I had to detach myself from my family and friends in order to work in America. Do I hate them? No! Do I love them any less when I agreed to come to America, No. I love them and will love them forever. But my love for Jesus was far more supreme. My love for the mission trumped my love for family and friends. This is what Jesus is saying to us today.