4-11-2026, Wednesday of Thirty First Week in Ordinary Time
Memorial of Saint Charles Borromeo
Phil 2: 12-18; Ps 27: 1, 4, 13-14; Lk 14: 25-33
We often picture Jesus as a gentle shepherd drawing people in with comforting words. But In today’s Gospel, Jesus turns to the great crowds traveling with him and drops a linguistic and spiritual shock. He was just inviting people to the banquet and now puts conditions: “If anyone comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters -yes, even their own life- such a person cannot be my disciple. And whoever does not carry their cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.” Is Jesus commanding us to abandon or despise our families?
To grasp the weight of Jesus’ words, we must look past modern English translations and examine the original Greek terms Luke employs:
When Jesus says we must “hate” (misēei) our father, mother, and even our own lives, modern English implies malice or hostility. However, in Semitic and ancient Greek rhetorical usage, miseō is often a comparative idiom of detachment. In Hebrew and Aramaic thought, love and hate often expressed preference rather than absolute malice (compare Genesis 29:31–33, where Jacob “hated” Leah compared to Rachel, meaning she was loved less).
Jesus is not telling us to act with cruelty toward our families. Rather, He is saying that our ultimate, consuming loyalty to Him must be so supreme, absolute, and fiercely prioritized that all other human attachments, most sacred earthly bonds, look like “hatred” by comparison. Nothing can rival the throne of God in our hearts.
Jesus concludes: “In the same way, those of you who do not give up everything you have cannot be my disciples.” The Greek word used is apotassetai (give up), does not necessarily imply physical destruction of property, but an internal posture of profound detachment. We hold our possessions, our plans, and our security with an open hand, ready to bid them farewell whenever God asks.
WISDOM TO LIVE
It is easy to hear this Gospel and keep it neatly compartmentalized inside a church pew. But Jesus is confronting our modern culture of convenience, consumerism, and half-hearted commitments. We live in a world that encourages us to place our career, our personal comfort, and our immediate family relationships at the absolute center of the universe. Jesus calls us to a radical reordering. When God has the first place in our lives, our love for our families actually purifies and deepens because we love them in God, rather than making idols out of them.
Are we living Christian lives of half-measures? Let us audit our spiritual houses today. Where are we holding back? What possession, comfort, or relationship are we refusing to surrender to the Lord? True freedom begins the moment we stop clinging to control and lay everything at the foot of the cross.
WISDOM FROM THE TREASURY OF THE CHURCH
“The Lord does not command us to hate our relatives with a malicious spirit, but to prefer the Creator to the creatures. For he who loves father or mother more than Christ is not worthy of Him.” – Saint Jerome
WISDOM FROM THE CARMEL
“To come to the possession of all, desire the possession of nothing. To come to be all, desire to be nothing… In this detachment the soul finds its quiet and repose, for, coveting nothing, nothing wearies it, and nothing exalts it, because it is in the center of its humility.” – Saint John of the Cross (Ascent of Mount Carmel) “Holiness consists simply in a disposition of heart that makes us humble and little in the arms of God, aware of our weakness, and confident—to the point of audacity—in His Fatherly goodness.” – Saint Thérèse of Lisieux (Story of a Soul)