From The Bishop

The First Reading and Gospel for the Twenty-Third Sunday in Ordinary Time speaks about the necessity of doing the will of God. In the Gospel we find Jesus stating something that seems quite harsh, “Whoever comes to me and does not hate their father and mother, spouse and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and even their life itself, cannot be my disciple.” These words are not meant to be taken literally. Jesus understands the importance of family relationships; however, he always wants us to know that they, together with material possessions, can become a serious distraction when discerning God’s will. We need to ‘hate’ those distractions. In the spiritual life there are times when we experience the ‘battle of the wills’. This involves ‘what I want’ versus ‘what God wants’. The challenge is to always configure our will to Christ. This is the heart of discipleship. To be successful at this takes some effort and Jesus makes reference to this fact in the Gospel when he speaks about preparing to build a tower and to win a war. A significant part of that ‘effort’ is self-denial which is associated with the cross. Jesus says, “whoever does not carry their cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.” In the First Reading from the Book of Wisdom we read, “For who can learn the counsel of God? Or who can discern what the Lord wills?” The fact is that we can know the will of God in our lives if we make the effort to remove the distractions and focus on Christ. “We can only learn to know ourselves and do what we can -- namely, surrender our will and fulfill God’s will in us" (St. Teresa of Avila).