Mt 8:18-22
Now when Jesus saw great crowds around him, he gave orders to go over to the other side. A scribe then approached and said, “Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go.” And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.” Another of his disciples said to him, “Lord, first let me go and bury my father.” But Jesus said to him, “Follow me, and let the dead bury their own dead.”
New Revised Standard Version, copyright 1989, by the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved. USCCB approved.
Letting Go of Attachments
I’ve always found this passage to be a little jarring. “Let the dead bury the dead” seems counter to the message we’re used to hearing from the God of Love. But maybe Jesus was only giving us fair warning. As a human like us, Jesus understood that the path to the Kingdom is full of challenges. The life of a disciple, a Christian, is one of sacrifice. Following Jesus must be our highest priority – over and above even the most reasonable other responsibilities like those we have to our families. It’s not easy.
When I first began to learn about Ignatian spirituality, I had a hard time with the concept of detachment. But as I’ve grown a bit in my understanding, I realize Ignatius was reminding us to avoid anything that might prevent one from putting God first – just as Jesus teaches in these verses from Matthew.
What might you be overly attached to that is preventing you from following Christ to the fullest?
—Therese Fink Meyerhoff is the provincial assistant for communication for the Jesuits USA Central and Southern Province.
Prayer
The goal of our life is to live with God forever. God, who loves us, gave us life. Our own response of love allows God’s life to flow into us without limit.
All the things in this world are gifts of God, presented to us so that we can know God more easily and make a return of love more readily.
As a result, we appreciate and use all these gifts of God insofar as they help us develop as loving persons. But if any of these gifts become the center of our lives, they displace God and so hinder our growth toward our goal.
In everyday life, then, we must hold ourselves in balance before all of these created gifts insofar as we have a choice and are not bound by some obligation. We should not fix our desires on health or sickness, wealth or poverty, success or failure, a long life or a short one. For everything has the potential of calling forth in us a deeper response to our life in God.
Our only desire and our one choice should be this: I want and I choose what better leads to God’s deepening his life in me.
—First Principle and Foundation, Contemporary translation by Fr. David Fleming, SJ