"Be perfect, just as your heavenly Father is perfect." (Matthew 5:48)

Monday, July 2, 2012

Fit to Follow Jesus?

        In today's Gospel reading from Matthew 8 at morning Mass, we heard the following. A scribe approached and said to Jesus, "Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go." Jesus answered him, "Foxes have dens and birds of the sky have nest, but the Son of Man has nowhere to rest his head." Another of his disciples said to him, "Lord, let me go first and bury my father." But Jesus answered him, "Follow me, and let the dead bury their dead."
        The point is that if we want to follow the Lord, we must not be concerned about or attached to anything else. The priest in his homily told about a young man interested in becoming a religious came to the seminary to learn about the religious life and he showed up with two pets, a dog and a parrot. The seminary gave him a chance for trial, but he lasted just a few months and left. His attachment to his pets was a clear sign that he's not fit to follow Jesus yet. Of course, people have all kinds of attachments to different things, but only the one who's attached to Jesus alone is free to follow him ~ he or she has wisely chosen the best.

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