A reflection on Luke 14:25-26
Wednesday of the Thirty-First Week in Ordinary Time
©️2021 Gloria M. Chang
What does it mean to love beyond consanguinity and place Christ above all earthly ties?
Great crowds were traveling with him, and he turned and addressed them, “If any one comes to me without hating his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.
Luke 14:25-26
Christ the King of All Hearts
Jesus does not command us to literally “hate” our family but rather love them in God. The Greek word for “hate” (miseó) means to detest (on a comparative basis), to love less, or to renounce one choice in favor of another.
Genesis documents the consequences of preferring flesh and blood to God when Adam, turning away from God, seeks to please Eve. Rather than fostering love and unity, trust dissolves on every level—human, cosmic, and divine. Alienation and death rush in when the God-man-woman triangle collapses into the deathly dyad of exclusive human love.
The law of life, written on the human heart, has room for only one God.
Hear, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord alone! Therefore, you shall love the Lord, your God, with your whole heart, and with your whole being, and with your whole strength.
Deuteronomy 6:4-5
The Trinity’s Love Beyond Consanguinity
Disciples subordinate all loves to the love of Christ. As divinity transcends consanguinity, enthroning Christ as King of all hearts restores humanity and the cosmos to shalom in the Blessed Trinity.
The love of the Trinity
Transcends consanguinity.
Traditional Chinese Translation
《超越血緣關係》
三位一體的愛
超越血緣的關係
During Jesus’ garden prayer,
Droplets of his blood emerged.
As his sweat became bloody red,
He bore the burden of our sin there.
Humanity’s pain weighed on his head,
Crowns of grace and salvation converged.