Blog Post 9/07/2022 – Does Jesus really want us to hate our fathers and our mothers?

 

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.  This sentence from the Gospel is one of the most difficult to understand.  Jesus, who talks so much about love of God and neighbor, couldn’t say such words, could he?  Yes, He did, to understand why, we must read the text in the context of Jewish culture. 

 

In the Bible, the expression “to hate” means “to love less.”  Those who want to follow Jesus must choose loving Jesus as their first and foremost love.   Love of Jesus does not mean exclude loving one’s family or oneself; it does mean the love of Christ is the greater love. 

Jesus’ disciples hold God to be the greatest treasure of their lives.  Jesus invites His followers to love Him more than anything and everything they have; they can enjoy material things, but things must never obscure God.  The spiritual principle of the entire Gospel is to love God and then to love everything else for the sake of God.  

Jesus makes this point through an exaggeration: “Unless you hate your father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters . . .”  Hate them in the measure that they come before God, love them in and through God.

Ponder your love of God and where in your life God resides. 

May God Be Praised!

 

*The image is available at the Salesian Shop https://www.salesianshop.com/the-sacred-artwork-of-bro-mickey-mcgrath/