Twenty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time - September 7, 2025 (Year C)
This week, we are challenged by the words of Jesus. He tells those who were traveling with Him that no one can truly follow Him without "hating" their family. Taken at just that line, it seems an insurmountable task, to disregard the love of those closest to us for the eternal love of Jesus. But two keys lines, one from the First Reading from Wisdom and the second from later in the Gospel Reading, help me to (hopefully) make sense of Jesus's proclamation. In the next part of the Gospel Reading, Jesus continues to compare being a disciple to preparing to construct a tower. Taking that example, all other context is removed - the builder's family obligations, their taxes due, etc... - and it's a simple exercise in having the right resources to achieve the goal. We too must remove the outside context, or distractions, and see what it is we truly need to do in our lives to be true to God, and sometimes that can be our family or our jobs or even our hobbies...