Reflection – Dr Nathan Leber
No longer a slave
Jesus’ words in the Gospel need some explanation. It is hard to understand what he means when he speaks of hating one’s family and renouncing our worldly possessions as a condition of discipleship. For the start, what we see in the translation in the scripture as ‘hating’ is a particular idiom in Hebrew indicating preference rather than a love or hate idea. To illustrate this, the same passage in Matthew reads slightly differently (10:37-8) – “Anyone who prefers their father or mother to me is not worthy of me. Anyone who prefers their son or daughter to me is not worthy of me.” The point clearly is that we need to put God first, to love and trust in Him – “love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind and with all your strength.” Okay…so this part is definitely hard, and just as we are getting our heads around this, after seemingly giving all up, we are asked to take up the cross, to suffer with those who suffer, to continue his mission – to find the richest rewards amongst the most marginalised. We are asked to love, to return that which we love, to remove temptation and to experience our life following the footsteps of our God. This all seems so counter to what we are told is important in life. So, we turn to the Book of Wisdom and read, “The reasonings of mortals are unsure and our intentions unstable…it is hard enough for us to work out what is on the earth, laborious to know what lies within our reach: who, then, can discover what is in the heavens?” We need to trust God for everything – particularly those things that are beyond our grasp – to humble ourselves before something far greater than ourselves. We come to faith in Christ by giving away our freedom and security as Jesus did, to stand before the mortal powers and say, “You have no power over me” – no power over what was freely given. I am no longer a slave! Of course, we should love our family, our friends, our neighbours and our enemies, but if they become an excuse not to take our path with Christ then we lose both. Then, loved ones become like possessions which we cling to in desperation as our excuse for not doing what is necessary – and they enslave us. If we put God first, we gain all, including our freedom and joy. AS Pope Francis says, “Jesus himself is our joy, and with Jesus, joy finds its home”. Joy is at home in Jesus. And our joy is just this: to be his disciples and his friends. Just as C.S. Lewis once wrote – the harshness of God is kinder than the softness of man – so too we need to put God first and to long for Him, as Psalm 42 puts so beautifully, “As the deer longs for running streams, so longs my soul for you, my God.”
Dr Nathan Leber
