Monday, 15th Week in Ordinary Time July 17, 2023

https://bible.usccb.org/bible/readings/071723.cfm

Is Jesus Out of His Mind, or Is He Worth Everything?

We think nothing of a man and a woman falling in love and living the rest of their life together in the sacramental bond of marriage. Couples spend much time and expense preparing for the wedding day, and moms and dads go out of their way to make the day the most important event of their child’s life.

Without a doubt, the bride and groom love each other in a different way than they do their parents and family. It is a unique love. We think nothing of the fact that they love each other more than their families, and they abandon their families and form their households. Marriage is a fact of life.  

Jesus is demanding from his disciples a more significant commitment to Him than man and wife commit to each other. Jesus demands nothing more from us than what he willingly embraced by becoming a man.   

I remember reading years ago in Those Mysterious Priests by Archbishop Fulton Sheen. He made the point that God becoming a man was like a man becoming a hound dog. You have the intelligence of a man but cannot speak. You can scan the sky’s stars, but you have your nose to the ground.   

Gospel Challenge:

Humans are worth so much to Jesus that He gave up far more for us and our eternal happiness. How much will we surrender to have His divine sacrificial love flowing through our veins? Jesus demands a lot from us, but the dividends are eternally worth it.    

The neatest thing about loving God more than anyone else is that it includes everyone else.

Fr. Rick Pilger, IC  
pastor@bscchurch.com