Gospel for November 4, 2009, Wednesday
Claretian Communications Foundation, Inc. | 11/04/2009 12:00 AM
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31st Week in Ordinary Time
Charles Borromeo
1st Reading: Rom 13:8–10
Gospel: Lk 14:25–33
One day, when large crowds were walking along with Jesus, he turned and said to them, “If you come to me, without being ready to give up your love for your father and mother, your spouse and children, your brothers and sisters, and indeed yourself, you cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not follow me carrying his own cross cannot be my disciple.
“Do you build a house without first sitting down to count the cost to see whether you have enough to complete it? Otherwise, if you have laid the foundation and are not able to finish it, everyone will make fun of you: This fellow began to build and was not able to finish.’
“And when a king wages war against another king, does he go to fight without first sitting down to consider whether his ten thousand can stand against the twenty thousand of his opponent? And if not, while the other is still a long way off he sends messengers for peace talks. In the same way, none of you may become my disciple if he doesn’t give up everything he has.”
Commentary
“Let this be the only debt of one to another: love!” Some debts, like taxes, or a mortgage, or a borrowed book, can be repaid; but love can never be repaid. We owe just as much of it after we make a payment as before. But there’s more to it: what Paul is saying is that, every debt we pay…every mortgage payment, every act of duty to anyone…should be acts of love. We shouldn’t put love in a category different from other acts of our lives. We must let everything be done in love. We should owe nobody anything, except this way: that we pay it in love.
The debt of love that we have to unbelievers and believers is not because they have done anything for us. Our debt of love exists because Christ has done everything for us, when we did not deserve it, any more than the world deserves our love. When Christ loves us freely, when He gave His life for us, when He took away all our sin and guilt and condemnation, and guaranteed for us everlasting joy in Him…and all of this when we didn’t even know Him…we became loving debtors to all humanity.
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