Be a disciple

23rd Sunday Of Ordinary Time, Year C

Perhaps the word which explicitly stands out when reading this week’s Gospel is the word “hate”. The original Greek word is μισεω (mīséō) – and its meanings range from ‘disfavour’ to ‘detest’ to ‘disregard’. To better understand the meaning of this word as Jesus is using it here, we must make reference to the context. This week’s Gospel features Jesus giving advice to his disciples. The question which He is answering is: “what does it mean to be a disciple?”. What does it mean for us to be true disciples of Christ? Must we “hate” our loved ones to be so? Not quite. Indeed, it would be highly contradictory for Jesus to beseech us to, on the one hand, “love” each other, and at the same time “hate” each other!

At the end of this passage, Jesus employs a parable, speaking of those who “begin to build but [who do] not have the resources to finish”. Here, Jesus has in mind persons who may follow him (and possibly also those who don’t) whose life is not authentic. Its foundations are not strong enough – meaning, they are not rooted in God. The foundations may not be strong enough for several reasons – but here Jesus specifically mentions a certain type of behaviour. This is a behaviour which all of us are by nature very prone to, yet which often comes in the way between us and God’s plan for us (and hence our flourishing). This behaviour is our “attachment” to things. The German mystic, philosopher, and theologian Meister Eckhart dedicated much time to exploring the relationship between “attachment” and “detachment”. He is iconically known for writing that: “all that God asks you most pressingly is to go out of yourself – and let God be God in you”. This is exactly what Christ means when he tells us: “if anyone comes to me without hating his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple”. To be disciples, as Eckhart notes, we need to “go out of ourselves”. To go out of ourselves means to not let anything come in between us and God’s will for us – because nothing is more valuable than what God wills – not our loved ones, not even our own life. 

Perhaps all this may sound strangely tyrannical and overbearing. Why would God, who is love itself, ask us to prefer Him over our fellow human beings? Doesn’t Jesus tell us, after all, that to love others is to love Him? 

It is crucial for us to know that God doesn’t ask us to love Him more than others in a competitive manner. God is love itself, and love is inclusive, not exclusive. It is not “either-or”, but “both-and”. Moreover, God doesn’t need our love – it is us who need to love Him. Why? The reason why God asks us to love Him above all, is so that we will be able to love others (and ourselves) with a divine love (with a perfect love). This is because, we can only love others with God’s own love, if we are “one with God”. In other words, we can only love other people with God’s love, if we have God’s love within us. How can we have God’s love within us, if there are things which are in the way between us and God? How can I be one with God, if I am more attached to my life than I am to God? How can I be one with God, if I am attached to money, my career, my ambitions, my reputation, more than I am attached to God – who is love? To love something – anything – more than God, is to idolise. It is to enslave myself to something which is temporal and which, one day, will falter. Is this worth it? Indeed, is it worth it to acquire all the world and lose one’s own soul in the process? 

The word “worship” traces its roots to the word “worth” – we worship what is truly “worth” worshipping. Is anything more valuable and worth worshipping than He who created everything, including our own selves? And how beautiful it is to realise, in the end, that to love God without attachments is to love others with the purest of loves – God’s own!

“Perfect love is not stratified by more (plus) or less (minus), degree or order, since it is One. Thus, a person who loves God more than a fellow human being acts in a good, but not perfect way. Perfect love is God, through whom we love” – Meister Eckhart 

A reading from the Gospel of Luke (Lk 14:25-33)

Great crowds were traveling with Jesus,
and he turned and addressed them,
“If anyone comes to me without hating his father and mother,
wife and children, brothers and sisters,
and even his own life,
he cannot be my disciple.
Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after me
cannot be my disciple.
Which of you wishing to construct a tower
does not first sit down and calculate the cost
to see if there is enough for its completion?
Otherwise, after laying the foundation
and finding himself unable to finish the work
the onlookers should laugh at him and say,
‘This one began to build but did not have the resources to finish.’
Or what king marching into battle would not first sit down
and decide whether with ten thousand troops
he can successfully oppose another king
advancing upon him with twenty thousand troops?
But if not, while he is still far away,
he will send a delegation to ask for peace terms.
In the same way,
anyone of you who does not renounce all his possessions
cannot be my disciple.”

The Gospel of the Lord
Praise to you Lord Jesus Christ

  1. Read the Gospel story so that you are familiar with it.
  2. Reflect on what the Gospel story is saying to you. Which points would you highlight and why?
  3. Ask yourself: how much do I truly love God? Is there anything in my life which I prefer above God – perhaps there is something/someone that I am extremely attached to more than I am attached to God (who is Love itself)? 
  4. To love God is to love Love itself. It is, therefore, to love others. We’re not called to love God “more”, but to love like God. To be able to love like God, we must first be “one” with God. Take some time to reflect on this. Take a moment to understand that to love God above all, is to love others with a perfect love. God’s love leads and is the source of the other loves. 
  5. Together with your family find the right time to read this Gospel. The environment helps, so before you start, prepare;

  6. i. The Bible reading from St Luke (Lk 14:25-33)
    ii. A candle
    iii. Cover the table with a green cloth
    v. A computer/laptop with the readings and clips
  7. Go through the steps with your children (2 age groups are being suggested).
  8. Feel free to adapt to your situation
  9. Be creative 😊 

Do you know what it means for us to be disciples of Jesus? In this week’s Gospel, Jesus explains this to us – he explains what it means to be disciples and to be true followers of God.

  • Being a disciple of Jesus is not always easy – it requires a lot of time and practice.
  • Bibles
  • pens
  • flip chart or newsprint
  • marker

Open by saying: I have a question for you: Who, here, can do this?  [this = a skill. See next bullet point for more explanation].

At this point, display a skill that you have that most kids will not be able to do.  Examples include: any form of whistling, successful use of a yo-yo, playing a musical instrument, juggling, or even just snapping your fingers. Whatever skill you choose, it must be a skill that can be learned. 

So, very few of us (maybe even none of us) can do what I’m doing, right?  Why do you think that is? Because we haven’t learned how to do this thing? Hmm. So, what would have to happen for you to learn how to do what I’m doing?

Yes! First, someone would have to show you how to do it. And, then you’d have to practice to get it right. This is one way that we learn, isn’t it? And one of the things about learning is that the time we choose to spend learning about that thing is time that we do NOT spend on other things. So, if we really want to be good at something, then we are going to spend a lot of time learning and practicing that one thing, right? Which also means that we’re going to have less time for other things, even things that we like and enjoy, like hanging out with friends or playing games.

In today’s scripture story, Jesus is telling the people in the crowd that if they really want to learn the skills that he, Jesus, knows, then they are going to have to put a LOT more time into learning and practicing what Jesus is teaching them. In fact, Jesus tells them that it will take so much time that they won’t always have very much time for other things, including spending as much time with their family and friends. Making time for Jesus is crucial.  

To summarise, Jesus is telling the crowds that they can’t just “be” his disciples. Instead, they will have to practice really hard at being Jesus’ disciples. The beautiful thing about this is that, in being a disciple of Jesus, we discover who we truly are. Each one of us, including me, desperately wants to know the answer to this question: who am I? Here, ask the children: how are the voices around you – the influences in your life – telling you to answer this question? Write the kids’ answers on the flip chart or newsprint. Possible answers include: You are what your gifts are; what others say you are; what your grades are; what you wear; what you eat; or what you think, say, and feel you are.

After the above, say something like: the reason why none of the answers we wrote to answer this question satisfies is because no one, not even us, has a completely accurate view of who we are. The only way to really get a true answer is to ask our Creator. That’s why the Bible says there’s one way to find the answer: Get to know Jesus. To be our true selves we need to be his disciples. If we follow him, he’ll lead you to your true self. This will be a daily journey, not a one-time commitment. We need to keep practicing. But all journeys begin with a first step!

Listen to the song (i.e., watch form 0:40 – 4:32)

Sign of the Cross.

Everyone says a short prayer asking Jesus to help us understand more what it means to be a disciple, so that Jesus will help us find enough time to spend with Him, and so that He may give us the energy and patience that we need to practice being a disciple. Also pray that Jesus will help us discover him, and ourselves, more and more!

In today’s Gospel we will listen to Jesus explaining what it means for a person to be a disciple. What does it mean for us to be God’s children?

  • Being a disciple of Jesus is not always easy; it requires us to love Jesus with a perfect love.
  • Whiteboard/Screen
  • Whiteboard marker 
  • Laptop

Begin by asking the children: think of something which you really love. This could range from: a type of food, to a particular game, to a film, to a favourite person, etc.

Next, say: imagine there is a videogame that you really love, and you spend so much time playing it that, whenever a friend asks you to play with them, or whenever your parents ask you to go out, you would tell them that you prefer to stay playing the videogame, rather than doing something else. Why is this type of behaviour so problematic?

Allow the children to discuss and express their thoughts.

After a few minutes, explain that, primarily, this type of behaviour is problematic because it is extreme. The problem is that, because one loves the video game so much, they end up ignoring other important things and people – things which, oftentimes, are more valuable than the video game itself! After observing this, encourage the children to imagine that the things that are being ignored (i.e., parents, friends) represent God. The video game represents anything which causes us to ignore God. These things can be: being busy, being tired, being forgetful, not praying often, not trying to build a relationship with God, focusing too much on friends/social media/shopping/watching series etc. at the expense of God. Ask the question: why is it dangerous that some things and some people can come in the way between us and God? And what are the things in our life that we are preferring over God?  Provide some time so that the children can reflect well upon these questions – the first question is to be discussed, the second question can be more personal. 

In this week’s Gospel, Jesus speaks to us about people who build their house on foundations that are not strong. These are people whose life is not centred around God. For them, God is not the most important thing. These people prefer certain friends or certain activities more than God. In saying this, Jesus warns us that people who are like this are not truly followers of His. They are not disciples. He tells us that: “if anyone comes to me without hating his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple”. Here, in using the word “hate”, Jesus does not mean to say that we should stop loving our parents, our friends, or our life! Rather, what Jesus means is that we should not love these persons or things more than God. Why is this so? Why does God want us to love him more than anything else? Doesn’t Jesus tell us that to love Him is equivalent to loving our neighbour?

The reason why Jesus wants us to love him more than anything else is because, it is only in loving Jesus a lot, that we can become like him. When we love someone or something a lot, we make a lot of time for them, and, as a result, we start to become more and more like them. If we loved a videogame a lot, there is a very high chance that the characters in the video game will affect us – we might start using words they use, for example. In the same way, if we loved Jesus a lot, then we would become more like Jesus. One example is, we would be able to love other people in the same way that Jesus loves them – and how does Jesus’ love? He loves us with a perfect love! This means that, Jesus wants us to love him more than anything simply because it is only in doing this that we can become like Jesus and love everyone perfectly!

We are like a flower and Jesus is the water. A flower could never grow without water, and we cannot truly grow without Jesus.Fun fact: the word “disciple” means “student”. This means are both children and students of Jesus. We learn from Him!

Sign of the cross.

Everyone says a short prayer asking Jesus to help us understand more what it means to be a disciple, so that Jesus will help us find enough time to spend with Him, so that we may become more and more like Him. Also pray that Jesus will help us remove/or reduce the things in our life which are coming in the way between us and God. 

Gospel in Symbols Sunday 22Download

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God speaks to us in many ways, including through the Sunday Scripture readings. Here you will find useful background and activities to better understand the upcoming Sunday's Scripture readings, helping you to connect the Scripture to daily life in a meaningful way.