Jesus said: “Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; who loves his son or daughter more than me, is not worthy of me”. “Whoever does not take his own cross and follow me, is not worthy of me. Whoever has kept his life for himself, will lose it, and who will lose his life for my cause, will find it”.

It sounds incomprehensible and are not easily understandable. If we reason like the Jews and the Greeks of two thousand years ago, we would consider these phrases of Christ foolish and scandalous.

What is the meaning of these statements? taking into account what Saint Paul states: “For Jews demand signs and Greeks look for wisdom, but we proclaim Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, but to those who are called, Jews and Greeks alike, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. For the foolishness of God is wiser than human wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than human strength.”

First, to have this understanding we must ask Christ to send His Spirit to help us read the Scripture with the same intelligence and with the same love with which he has read it for his disciples on the road to Emmaus. With the light of the Sacred Scripture, Christ helped the two disciples of Emmaus to see the presence of God in the upsetting events of his condemnation and of death. The cross, which seemed to be the end of every hope, has finally been understood by them as a source of life and resurrection.

In the light of this, we can understand that the love for Christ is not antagonistic to love for our dear ones. Jesus does not ask not to love them but to love them in Him. To put it briefly: Christ tells not to prefer to God, what God gives.

Sunday OT 13 – A – June 28, 2026