Commentary on the Gospel of
WE HAVE GIVEN UP EVERYTHING TO FOLLOW YOU
To follow Jesus is painful because it involves many levels of “leaving behind” — family and friends, the familiar and secure, emotional baggage and unresolved angers, a certain control over one’s surroundings and one’s future. To follow Jesus thus entails multiple ways of dying to oneself.
Nonetheless, to my surprise, whenever the Lord calls me to give up something, he offers me something better. Whenever the Lord bids me to go some place, I do not lose friends but gain innumerable new ones. What the Lord asks of us is nothing compared to what he offers us in return.
