Jesus First!

by David Lins  |  07/02/2023  |  (Being) Catholic Matters

Wake up. Get ready for work. Go to work (and if you are retired, you’ve replaced work with hobbies and commitments). Go home. Eat dinner. Get ready for bed. Sleep. Do it again four more times. Do chores and go to Mass on the weekend. Repeat 52 times a year.

In this world full of repetition, it is easy to feel as though we were made for more. And guess what? This weekend’s Gospel reading reminds us that we were!

Jesus is speaking to his closest followers—which is what we are called to be. He begins with priorities. He must come first. And this sounds like common sense until we remember this includes our families.

And I quote, “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.” This doesn’t mean God wants us to toss our family aside. Quite the opposite. “Honoring your father and mother” is kind of a big deal to him. (He included it in his top ten!) This means you cannot place your family above God. Fight the temptation to change God to fit your family. Instead, pray for your family to conform to God.

He goes on, “Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.” It’s almost as if Jesus knows that family is the greatest temptation for his followers—in terms of placing something above him—but just in case there were some who placed other things above the Lord, he covers it all (including life, itself).

Okay. Now that we’ve covered the cost to get into the club, what happens in the club?

That is a bit more difficult to share. Why? Because it is something different for each person reading these words— just like each of the apostles had individual callings.

They were called to speak to different people, in different places, and with different methods. All spreading God’s beautiful Church.

And the same is true for us.

When we wake up and say a very simple prayer (“God, what do you have for me today?”), and soak our lives in the sacraments, our lives become anything but monotonous. We become alert and obedient to the Holy Spirit’s promptings.