Our Lord gives us a challenging call in our Gospel today. He tells us that whoever loves father, or mother, or son, or daughter more than Him is not worthy of Him. This sounds radical to us. Surely God would not expect us to place our religion above our family, right? Isn’t family supposed to be #1 on our list of priorities? Jesus reveals that all human loves and allegiances are subordinate to the love and allegiance owed first and foremost to Him. In other places in the Gospels, Jesus upholds the importance of the family, but He also emphasizes a higher authority when the demands of discipleship and those of family oppose each other. Family is important! But even above the priority of family, there is an “urgent priority of the kingdom of God.” St. Augustine illustrates this priority of God in a sermon wherein a Christian son responds to his parents when they ask him to do something that would put family above God. He tells them: “I will love you in Christ, not instead of Christ. You will be with me in him, but I will not be with you without him… Should I obey the ones who raised me and lose the One who created me?” Ultimately, this struggle between faith and family is not a goal in itself, it’s not the way it’s meant to be, but sometimes it is an “inevitable consequence of the absolute allegiance Jesus claims from His disciples.”
I believe that many of us Catholics are not radical enough in our faith. By “radical,” I don’t mean blowing up buildings or hurting people! I mean making God the highest priority of our lives. Radicality is not something reserved for the “super Catholics” or the “holy rollers.” Radicality is essential to being a Christian. It is inherent in the call that Jesus gives to each and every one of us. We all need to ask ourselves: Am I living a radical relationship with Jesus Christ? Is my faith the ordering principle of my entire life? This plays out very concretely in our lives. How do we spend our time? How do we decorate our homes? What do we make sacrifices for? So many people are willing to make sacrifices for their careers, for their physical health, for friends, for family, for sports. What kind of sacrifices are we willing or not willing to make for God?
When a person comes to me in confession, and they confess a number of “big” sins, and somewhere in their list they lightly mention also missing Mass on Sundays, I often will respond to them by asking: “Of all the sins that you have confessed, do you know which one I am most concerned about?” Sometimes they will just stay silent, but sometimes they try to guess, pointing to the quote-unquote “big” sins. But I tell them the sin I am most concerned about on their list is missing Mass on Sundays. Because that is such a clear indication that God has slipped down the list of priorities in a person’s life, and if that has happened, then the gates are wide open to every other kind of sin to have free reign. The celebration of the Mass itself re-orders us and re-orders the priorities of our life. What are willing to make sacrifices for?
In each one of our lives at this very moment, the Lord is calling us to live a more radical life of faith. There is something very concrete, very specific that the Lord has in mind for you, a next step to be a more radical disciple. Ask Him today what that is. What is He calling you to give up? What is He calling you to take on? How is He inviting you to give more of yourself, more of your heart to Him? We are called to give our whole selves to the One who has given His whole self to us. If we do this, everything else in our lives will fall into its proper place. If we do this, God will take care of us, even when it means that we have to “take up our cross” of suffering right next to Jesus. Do not be afraid to be a radical disciple. “Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.”
Total Surrender 
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