“If any one 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.” (Luke 14:26.)
Saint Augustine of Hippo comments on this verse from the Gospel proclaimed during today’s Mass:
“On another occasion, the Lord says, “Whoever comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, and wife and children, and brothers and sisters, and even his own soul, cannot be my disciple.” As a rule, this is more upsetting to the mind of new Christians who are eager to begin at once to live in accordance with the precepts of Christ. To those who do not fully grasp its meaning, it would seem contradictory…. He has condescended to call his disciples to the eternal kingdom. He also called them brothers. In the kingdom these relationships are transcended, because “there is neither Jew nor Greek, neither male nor female, neither slave nor freeman, but Christ is all things and in all.”1 The Lord says, “For in the resurrection they will neither be married nor marry, but will be as the angels of God in heaven.”2 Whoever wishes to prepare himself now for the life of that kingdom must not hate people but those earthly relationships through which the present life is sustained, the temporary life that begins at birth and ends with death. Whoever does not hate this necessity does not yet love that other life in which there will be no condition of birth and death, the condition that makes marriages natural on earth.” (Sermon on the Mount, 15.)
Collect
O God,
Who made the Bishop Saint Norbert
a servant of Your Church outstanding
in his prayer and pastoral zeal,
grant, we ask,
that by the help of his intercession,
the flock of the faithful
may always find shepherds
after Your own heart and
be fed in the pastures of salvation.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son,
Who lives and reigns with You
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Who made the Bishop Saint Norbert
a servant of Your Church outstanding
in his prayer and pastoral zeal,
grant, we ask,
that by the help of his intercession,
the flock of the faithful
may always find shepherds
after Your own heart and
be fed in the pastures of salvation.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, Your Son,
Who lives and reigns with You
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Glory to the Father
and to the Son
and to the Holy Spirit:
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and will be forever. Amen
and to the Son
and to the Holy Spirit:
as it was in the beginning,
is now, and will be forever. Amen
