Lord, I am willing to follow You

by Fr. Jerome Cayetano  |  06/28/2026  |  The WORD in other words

All human relationships from personal to business have one principle that they follow. What is this principle? It is a “give and take” kind of relationship. Does Jesus have the right to demand from us? Of course, He does. He emptied himself to become like us in all things, except sin to show His unconditional love for us. He suffered and had to experience excruciating pain and was crucified and died for our salvation.

These demands are explicitly expressed in this fashion: “Whoever loves father, mother, son, or daughter, more than Me is not worthy of Me. He who will not take up his cross and come after me is not worthy of Me…” These demands of Jesus have been made, as He concludes in His missionary instructions to His disciples, where He lays down the sacrifices involved and the priorities they need to embrace, so as to become worthy of His love. They must be ready to face the consequences of their decision to follow Him to the extent of sacrificing their human relationships, their dearest things in life, because for Jesus, the priority and the absolute value is the Kingdom of heaven, His person and doing the will of God. All other relationships and things are secondary to these values. In certain circumstances, they have to choose between Him and their loved ones. And to be worthy of Him entails that we choose Him over our loved ones, our preferences, and our personal things.

The Gospel also stresses that God will never forget whatever support or generosity we have shown to his envoys and messengers even just a “cup of water.” To receive them implies that we receive Jesus Himself and the Father who sent Him. Any charitable contribution or support given to the church or to His messengers will surely be rewarded by God. Thus, the Gospel reading today challenges and convicts us to prioritize our relationship with God and with Jesus over and above our loved ones and the significant persons in our lives. In practice it is shown by the time that we give to Him in our private prayer and together with the community. Not to give time to Him in prayer or to join the believing community in worship on Sundays and Holy Days of Obligation shows that we prioritize our concerns and preferences above Him. It implies that we do not love Him.

Secondly, we are being asked by Jesus to carry our crosses, that is, carrying out our tasks and responsibilities with love - our love for God (i.e. the vertical beam of the cross) and our love for our brothers and sisters (the horizontal beam of the cross). Whatever pains and sufferings that we have in life, we must carry them patiently with love to fill up the sufferings of Christ for the Church.

Thirdly, we are being asked to deny ourselves to the extent of dying to our likes and preferences for the sake of Jesus and his Kingdom, like most of the Apostles who died as martyrs for Jesus. They were able to follow in His footsteps to Calvary. They did it for love of Jesus in the Holy Spirit.