"Come to me all you who are weary ..."

The words of Jesus in the gospel today (Luke 14:25) could be very upsetting if we take them literally. He tells us that, ''Whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes and even life itself, cannot be my disciple.'' How can we reconcile those words with those of 1 John 4:20 who says ,''Those who say 'I love God,' and hate their brothers and sisters are liars, for those who do not love a brother or sister whom they have seen, cannot love God whom they have not seen.'' Jesus wants us to love all our family members but he uses the exaggerated Eastern way of speaking to teach us that we must love him with a love even greater than the love we have for our families.Then Jesus goes on to say that anyone who does not carry their cross and come after him cannot be his disciple. These words have often been misunderstood. Some have thought that it means to inflict physical suffering on themselves. No, to carry the cross is to follow Jesus with total confidence in and through the weakness and difficulties of our human nature. We can be tempted to seek pleasure, accumulate goods, power or prestige but Jesus calls upon us to reject them in order to be his true disciples. Paul puts it well in the first reading when he tells the Philippians that they are to shine like stars in the world even though they are living in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation. We too live in a society where the the values of Jesus are scoffed or ignored as irrelevant. Jesus was mocked as he carried his cross to Calvary but he stopped to encourage his mother and the women of Jerusalem. He encourages us too; ''Come to me all you who are weary and are carrying heavy burdens and I will give you rest, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light.''(Matthew 11:28-30)