Monday in the Fifteenth Week of Ordinary Time
Jesus is not mad, but He is disappointed. Today, He speaks of individuals who are “not worthy of me” (Mt. 10:37, 38). All the individuals who love something else more, and who do not wish to follow Him, are unworthy. This sounds harsh (and, ironically, perhaps a little “un-Christlike”) to our modern ears. But Jesus has “come to set the world on fire,” and such a task is not the time for half-hearted platitudes. He must shake us from our complacency, and the reminder that we might not be worthy of Him does indeed shake us.
Being shaken is good, however. Too often, we take Jesus for granted. He is less our messiah and more our security blanket. We convince ourselves that because He will never leave us, what we do does not matter to Him. Being shaken is good because we can be shaken from complacency to greatness. Jesus has come not to affirm our old ways of doing things or assure us that we are fine as we are. Jesus has come to give us a gift and destiny far greater than we could ever imagine. Jesus will always be there to help us become worthy of this gift—will we rise to the occasion?