November 4
The Cost of Discipleship
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Today’s Gospel: Luke
14:25-33
(The Cost of Discipleship)
“Now great multitudes accompanied him; and he
turned and said to them, "If any one comes to me and does not hate his own
father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even
his own life, he cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not bear his own cross and
come after me, cannot be my disciple. For which of you, desiring to build a
tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough
to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation, and is not able to
finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying, `This man began to build, and
was not able to finish.' Or what king, going to encounter another king in war,
will not sit down first and take counsel whether he is able with ten thousand
to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? And if not, while the
other is yet a great way off, he sends an embassy and asks terms of peace. So
therefore, whoever of you does not renounce all that he has cannot be my
disciple.”
Reflection:
So, are
you in or are you out? Think of it like a ship leaving the dock: you are either on board or standing on the shore, because you cannot be both.
Jesus speaks plain, pure truth in today’s Gospel, and by the end we should be able to decide how far we are willing to follow Him.
He asks us to put Him above everything and everyone, even the people we love
most, so that our lives are consumed by Him completely. If you skipped over
that last sentence, that’s okay, I’ll say it again: He wants all of you. It
really is all about Jesus, and it should be.
You are still reading, which is a good sign. Remember that Jesus willingly
embraced His cross, not only because the Father desired it, but because He
wanted to set us free from the bondage of our sins, and He paid for those sins
with His own blood. We have been bought for a price, my sisters and brothers.
Jesus counted the cost and said yes to what His Father asked, and He died so
that we might live, which is the greatest sacrifice anyone could ever make for
another person, and He did it out of pure love. The only fitting response is to
love Him back with every fiber of our being, so take up your cross and don’t
turn back. And if you wonder what true discipleship will cost you, simply look
at what it cost Him, because it will cost us the same: everything.
So, I say what today’s Gospel says: count the cost, and live wisely as you move
forward, because if you are a true disciple, there will be a price. Carrying the
cross of Christ does not lead to a rosy, easy life of plenty, and it should not
surprise us when sacrifice, suffering, ridicule, and hatred show up along the
way. I have spent forty-three years publicly loving and sharing our Lord, our
Lady, and the Rosary, and in that time, I have been yelled at, threatened, and
told hateful things about my faith, my priests, my pope, and my Lord from
people all around the world, some of it cutting deep and even scaring me to
death. That is the cost of being a disciple, and it doesn’t matter to me what
they say or do, because Jesus is my Lord always, even if it costs me my life. It
is Beneath the Standard of Mary, that we
learn that following Jesus all the way means walking where she walked, staying
close to her Son even when the road leads to the cross, and trusting that
nothing we give up for Him is ever wasted.
Are you in or are you out, and what is the one thing you are still
holding back from Jesus? When your faith costs you something, whether it’s a
hard word or a hard choice, will you keep walking or turn back? And who is
watching you carry your cross who might decide to follow Him because you didn’t
quit?
Rosary Man Jim 🌹
Freely given. Freely shared.
