If anyone comes to me without hating his father or mother...

Did Jesus hate his mother? Of coure not. He entrusted her to the care of John the apostle.

So what is he talking aout in today's Gospel?

He is using hyperbole to illustrate that the Gospel demands a whole hearted and radical response.

He said this because the world had never experienced  before a message so demanding a loving response.

In the long history of mankind going back to when people emerged from caves, there had never been anything like it.

So do we hear it today as an earth shaking message?

If we did it would turn our world upside down.

Matthew Kelly writes:

"Most Christians beieve that we cannot change our world...that the culture ha become so powerful that we are simply incapable of changing it..."

No wonder that today Jesus gives us a wake up call?

Can we hear it?

And so we pray:

Jesus,

rattle our cages

of indifference, and lassitude.

Change us from "it cannot be done"

to "Yes we can."

Amen