Today is Nov. 6, Wednesday of the Thirty-first Week in Ordinary Time.
In today’s Gospel, Jesus says, “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” (Lk 14:26).
“When Christ calls a man,” writes Deitrich Bonhoeffer, “he bids him come and die.”
Later this month, Angel Studios will release the new biopic “Bonhoeffer,” telling the story of the Lutheran pastor turned spy who was killed for his vocal opposition to the Nazi regime.
In his most famous work, “The Cost of Discipleship,” Bonhoeffer contends that as Christianity expanded, the Church began to “secularize,” adjusting its call to obey Jesus to align with societal norms. In doing so, “the world was Christianized, and grace became common property.” However, this brought a danger: The Gospel was diluted.
In the book’s most famous passage, he argues: “Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate. … Costly grace is the gospel which must be sought again and again, the gift which must be asked for, the door at which a man must knock.”
The only real grace, the only real pattern for discipleship, requires us to seek the Gospel over and over again. And living the Gospel comes at a cost. It means being willing to sacrifice for the Lord. And, as Jesus warns, it means that if we face the painful choice of choosing family or Christ, we must choose Christ.
To follow Christ, we must surrender. We must surrender even our most precious relationships, preferring the Lord above anyone else. As disciples, Jesus makes a claim on our hearts. We must not only assent to the Faith that Our Lord taught, we must love him and allow him to fully possess our hearts.
Today, let’s pray about those relationships that may be holding us back in our discipleship. May we be even more courageous in our following of Christ:
Grant us, we pray, O Lord our God, the constant gladness of being devoted to you, for it is full and lasting happiness to serve with constancy the author of all that is good. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever.
My Daily Visitor spiritual reflections are a dose of daily Catholic inspiration from Our Sunday Visitor magazine.
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