“God gave Himself to you: give yourself to God.”

Christ does not force our will, He only takes what we give Him. But He does not give Himself entirely until He sees that we yield ourselves entirely to Him. -- St Teresa of Avila

Gospel text (Mt 10,34--11,1): Jesus said to his Apostles:
“Do not think that I have come to bring peace upon the earth.
I have come to bring not peace but the sword.
For I have come to set
a man against his father,
a daughter against her mother,
and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law;
and one’s enemies will be those of his household.

“Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me,
and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me;
and whoever does not take up his cross
and follow after me is not worthy of me.
Whoever finds his life will lose it,
and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.

“Whoever receives you receives me,
and whoever receives me receives the one who sent me.
Whoever receives a prophet because he is a prophet
will receive a prophet’s reward,
and whoever receives a righteous man
because he is righteous
will receive a righteous man’s reward."

When Jesus finished giving these commands to his Twelve disciples,
he went away from that place to teach and to preach in their towns.

To be true disciples of Jesus, we must love Jesus more then anything or anyone in this life, even our fathers, mothers, sons, or daughters (Mt 10:37). To some this seems impossible. However, to be disciples of Jesus, we must do something else which is almost unthinkable. We must deny our very selves (Lk 9:23), lose ourselves (Lk 9:24), bring ourselves "to nought" for Jesus (Mt 10:39). We all are naturally addicted to self. It is impossible for us to stop our chronic narcissism. Yet nothing is impossible with God (Lk 1:38).

God's ways and thoughts are very different than ours (Is 55:8-9). This means we don't understand what God does much of the time, and we are tempted to reject His will and His word. However, if we fix our eyes on Jesus (Heb 3:1), we will be open to divine revelation, even though it is far beyond our understanding. Jesus is the only Way to understand and obey God's word.

Only Jesus can remove the veil that obstructs our understanding of and obedience to God's word (2 Cor 3:14). For example, God says: "He who seeks only himself brings himself to ruin, whereas he who brings himself to nought for Me discovers who he is" (Mt 10:39). Many people disagree with this and believe in self-realization, not self-denial. However, we should focus not only on self-denial, but on self-denial for Jesus.

Jesus said: "He who will not take up his cross and come after Me is not worthy of Me" (Mt 10:38). Many read this and automatically underline the words "cross" or "not worthy," but we should underline "after Me" and "of Me," that is, after Jesus and of Jesus. We should read every Scripture verse as if we were at the foot of Jesus' cross. Then we can see the most severe demands of the Bible not as impossible obligations, but as opportunities to love Jesus. We will understand the words of God only when we love the Word of God, Jesus.