Monday of the Fifteenth Week in Ordinary Time

http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/071612.cfm

Self-portrait in camo

When Jesus finished giving these commands to his Twelve disciples, he went away from that place to teach and to preach in their towns.

Mark Twain tells of his training as a novice pilot on the Mississippi River. As soon as they set out for the first time on the great river the pilot started pointing out landmarks and sandbars by their various names and characteristics. The boy sat on a stool taking it all in and enjoying the ride. After a mile or two, the pilot suddenly asked him, “Name all the points I just showed you?”  Twain was stunned. He had not been paying that much attention. The pilot then administered the usual 19^th century antidote for student inattention, a severe beating.

In today’s gospel Jesus seems to be teaching his disciples about his own mission and their relationship with him. But it doesn’t take very deep insight to see his teachings are commands:

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; 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.

As Ted Koppel said of the Ten Commandments, these are not suggestions; and we’d best sit up on our stools and pay attention.

There are surely moments in everyone’s life when the two-edge sword of the gospel cuts between oneself and one’s loved ones. They may be parents, children or spouse. The personal search for one’s own standing before God sometimes demands a break with the expectations of parents and family and friends. People in recovery from substance abuse face this dilemma. How can they honor the father or mother who raised them in such a dreadful environment. 

Even a vocation to the priesthood, a monastery or religious life meets occasional opposition, if not suspicion. Every seeker of God, regardless of his or her circumstance, must listen for the Spirit of God moving deep in the heart for guidance into an unexpected, unpredictable future. 
Abraham set the pattern almost 4000 years ago; Jesus followed it as he set out from Nazareth for Jerusalem; you and I listen for that same Holy Spirit today.