In today’s Gospel, Jesus makes a seemingly shocking statement. He tells us: 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. It is strange for us to hear Jesus put himself in what seems to be competition with others’ love. We are used to hearing about how all loving He is, and our modern notion of love is scandalized that our teddy bear Jesus would reject us if we did not love Him more than the closest relationships that we have.
Yet, if we dive a bit deeper and humble ourselves, we can recognize that what Jesus says is actually a warning against idol worship. Elevating anything, even some of the most important things, over love of God will lead us down the wrong path. Our disordered sense of love will ultimately harm our relationship with God and the thing that we are elevating above Him. Because of this, the thing that we love so much can become tainted and even harmful to us – which is exactly what Jesus is trying to save us from.
Jesus’s words, while sounding harsh, are actually revealed wisdom. Loving Jesus does not cause us to love others less. He is not in competition with them. Rather, loving Jesus enhances our love because if He is love then the more we love Him, the better we love others. So when Jesus calls us to love Him over all other relationships, He is actually giving us the key to giving so much more love to those relationships that we hold dear. God does not take away good things such as love. He only enhances it.
Jesus doubles down on God’s goodness later in the Gospel when He affirms the rewards that go along with showing love in God’s name. Honoring a prophet, a righteous man, a disciple, or even a child in Jesus’ name will be repaid by God who is never outdone in love and generosity. When love is given freely, more abounds. So when we enter into the cycle of self giving love with God without focus on receiving, we are given more than we could have imagined.
God wants to give us good things, and that begins with Himself. If we receive this and love Him above all things, then we will properly love and be given so much more. But if we have a disordered love for things, even if they are good, we will lose those things that we hold too dear. Because we will fail to be showing true love. So as we continue in this ordinary time, let us seek first God and His Kingdom so as to receive everything that we need.