Follow Me

In today's gospel reading Jesus speaks to the crowd following him, wanting them to consider what it means to truly follow him. They are told that if they do not hate their family members and even their own lives then they cannot be Jesus' disciples. And we are confronted with the same situation - in the choices we face between doing what our family wants or doing what Jesus requires, to truly 'follow' Jesus means to do what he requires every time. If we base our choices on anything else, Jesus is saying that we cannot be his disciples. Even when it comes to choices over our very lives. This is big call and one we must consider when we say we want to follow Jesus. It involves cost and we will continue to struggle throughout our whole lives to do this amidst the choices we face everyday, but nonetheless it remains the basic call of Jesus - "follow me" (Luke 9:59).