July 2 Sun
To be a Christian is not to sympathize with a cause, however noble it may be, but an adherence of our intelligence and heart, a commitment to a Person, Jesus. It is to share his life and destiny, to participate in his free and loving obedience to the will of the Father. The incisive, almost harsh tone of today's Gospel reminds us: "Whoever loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me".

Anyone who is familiar with the teachings of Jesus understands that these words do not oppose the 1st and 4th Commandments, they merely point out the order in which they are to be lived. "Honor your father, so long as he does not separate you from the true Father" (St. Jerome).

Nor do these words of Jesus imply contempt for one's own life, but rather the conditions to live it to the full. Nothing must come before the love of God. Parents and children should remember this when God insinuates himself into their lives and invites them to a more generous dedication to the cause of the Gospel. And everyone should understand that to live obsessively concerned with oneself and one's interests, with one's own well-being, without thinking of God and others, is to blind oneself to the fountain from which one wishes to drink.

Yes, you must live life beautifully and not allow the spirit of the world – that makes gods out of power, riches, and pleasure – make you to forget that you have been created for greater things.

What makes a person – and even an entire society – truly unhappy is this anxious search for well-being, the unconditioned attempt to eliminate everything that is contrary to it. Life presents a thousand facets, each one of them is an original call from God: an unprecedented opportunity to work, to give the divine witness of charity.

Without the Cross there is no Christianity. Selfish comfort seeps into every affection and every action. Only time, setbacks, the monotony of daily work, humiliating temptations, falls, and discouragement can purify us, giving that healthy forgetfulness of self that Jesus proposes to us. Yes, love is purified and strengthened by these trials. It can also degenerate into rebellion, as it happened with the bad thief, because the acid test of love is pain.

Love to be real, it must cost – it must hurt – it must empty us of self.

However, the reward is heaven. Christian commitment is not self-renunciation, but the fruitful activity of love. God is not to be outdone in generosity.