If it is raining heavily, we say it is raining cats and dogs. Of course, cats and dogs are not falling out of the sky. It’s just an expression that we use to describe very heavy rain. If someone is very hungry, he says he could eat a horse. Of course he could not eat a horse in one meal; it is an expression we use to describe being extremely hungry. In the Gospel, to describe the commitment that Jesus expects from his followers, he also uses an expression that is an exaggeration to make his point: If anyone 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) Jesus certainly does not want us to hate anyone; he asked us to do the opposite, to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us. But he does not want anything to come between him and us, so he used the exaggerated language of his day (hyperbole) to make his point. We should certainly love all others in a Christian way and love Jesus above all.
Jesus continues describing the commitment he wants from us as he says, “Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.” (Luke 14:27) That was startling language. The cross was the method used by the Romans for capital punishment. Everyone knew criminals were forced by the Romans to carry the crossbeam on which they would die. Carrying one’s cross meant going to one’s death. When Jesus says to carry our cross after him, he is asking for some kind of dying to ourselves. In other words, Jesus is saying that following him as his disciple involves a sacrifice of some kind, giving up possibilities to choose Jesus instead. We can’t choose every possibility and Jesus because some choices would be contrary to the Gospel.
We see sacrifice being lived out in the life of Our Lady to follow Jesus as she said to the angel Gabriel, “Behold I am the handmaid of the Lord. May it be done to me according to your word.” (Luke 1:38) Being pregnant with Jesus meant the sacrifice of people gossiping about her. We know they were gossiping because in John’s gospel, during a difficult conversation, some Jewish people made a slur about Jesus’ birth when they said, “We are not illegitimate.” (John 8:48) According to Jewish law, Our Lady could even have been stoned to death because of being pregnant with Jesus (Deut 22:21) but that law was not enforced at that time. In the temple, Simeon told Our Lady a sword of sorrow would pierce her (Luke 1:35). The negative reactions of people to Jesus, and eventually his crucifixion, were a sword of sorrow to pierce her. All her life she was loving God in the most perfect and beautiful way because she was untainted by sin, and so all her life was a beautiful sacrifice of love to God and sometimes that sacrifice was the negativity of others and what they said to or about Jesus. That came to a climax when she stood beneath Jesus’ cross on Calvary. She was joining in Jesus’ offering of himself to the Father for us. Jesus sacrificed himself to the Father for us and Our Lady stood beneath Jesus also sacrificing Jesus for us. When Jesus says to carry our cross after him to be his disciple, there is one supreme example: Our Lady. At Cana, Our Lady said to the servers, “Do whatever he tells you” (John 2:5) and she lived that all her life.
Contrast Our Lady’s
sacrificial life of love of God with our love of God. Sometimes we
would prefer to flee from the cross if possible. Sometimes we think
only of ourselves. Sometimes we are selfish. Sometimes we want to
have it our way and think we can also have Jesus at the same time.
Sometimes we do not want to accept that following Jesus means making
a sacrifice out of love for him. Our Lady shows us what it means to
follow Jesus. She lived the words of Jesus in today’s Gospel: If
anyone 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. Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after me
cannot be my disciple. (Luke 14:26-27)
© Fr. Tommy Lane 2025
This homily was delivered in a parish in Ireland.
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