Does anybody else find this Gospel reading a little difficult or seemingly contradictory to what we know about Jesus? I mean, I know he always says we need to love him, but this feels different, like he is telling us to turn our backs on our family. Let’s take a look and see if we can figure out what he is calling us to do today.

“Whoever loves father and mother more than me is not worthy of me.”

“Whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.”

OK, does Jesus want us to take this at face value? No. He by no means is saying to love our parents less than we do today! And we aren’t choosing to love God and forget our parents, our kids or ignoring their needs. We know that because of how he loved his parents and what he has told us at many different points in the Bible about love of parents and care for our kids.

What he is saying is that we need to love him more than we do today. He is saying love me, live by my formula, and you will have the fruits of my love in peace, balance, and hope. 

• Peace in our lives so we can focus on what is truly important and we can in fact love more.
• Balance in our lives so that we can enjoy our families and the summer beauty around us.
• Hope in our lives so that we can deal with loss because we know that death is not the end. Jesus proved that with his resurrection!

By loving him above all, we are in right relationship with him and in fact able to love and appreciate our parents and kids more than without him.

OK, good… so we know that he is not telling us to love him to the detriment of our parents and kids. But what about the other line where he says, “Whoever does not take up his cross and follow me is not worthy of me.”That sounds like he has something rough in store for us! 

But here too he is telling us to trust in him and to deepen our loving relationship with him not so that he can then make it rough on us, but that when life is rough and he is at our side, we can take it! If we think we can take on our “crosses” without him, we are really saying we don’t need him. Life is hard at times, but it is easier when we have his help and his love in our life to get through these hard times. That is a fact. 

Great. But how? How do we do that? How do we build that relationship with him? Here are some of the practical ways we can take steps this summer to do just that. 

You have heard me say that Jesus Christ desires a true and deep relationship with him, and that he says, “I will give you rest.” That rest lies in him and is not fleeting, it is lasting. He wants us to pour our hearts out to him – our fears, needs, worries and anxieties; he gives us an outlet for them. 

When we practice doing just that this summer, unloading our cares, worries and stress on him, we are in fact building that relationship with him and we establish a routine in our lives where we do that all year long. This is our “hidden reserve” of spiritual power, a way to call upon that relationship all year long when we get back to our busy post Labor Day lives and our anxieties creep back in. So, this summer…

Pray a Rosary while on a walk and dedicate that Rosary to an intention you need help with or something you are anxious about and hand it over to him.

Pray while in that beach chair – don’t just recite prayers, talk to him and unload all that you carry. That’s what he wants!

Go on a spiritual retreat – get away for a couple of days where you can bask in some silence and hear God’s tender call to you. I am going to do that this summer.

Read a book about one of the Saints and see where that takes your own spiritual journey.

Summer, a time to relax and recharge. Make the commitment to not just recharge physically, but to recharge spiritually so that you can call upon Jesus all year and have more peace, balance and hope in your life!