Fr. Paul ANIGBORO

“If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me, cannot be my disciple” (Luke 14:26-27).

What connection can we draw from these strong statements of Jesus? Are we to say that Jesus is against love and peaceful co-existence among family members? Surely, that would be contradicting Jesus’ entirely preaching on love as the highest of all virtues.

By nature, every human being is tribal in the sense that we were all born into a tribe, but tribalism is the deliberate hatred/rejection of another person just because he or she is not a member of one’s tribe. It is one thing to identify yourself as belonging to a tribe, but a grave evil to restrict your love only to members of your tribe. This is precisely the evil that Jesus seeks to correct. This is the point behind the parable of the Good Samaritan who proved neighbour to the man beaten and left half dead while a priest and Levite passed by.

Jesus is not against loving family members or taking up our family responsibilities rather Jesus is totally against showing love ONLY to family members or what we may call “preferential treatment.” This is the reason why Jesus would not permit the man who wanted to go first and bury his father before following Him.

Therefore, Jesus told the one who wanted to bid farewell to his family that whoever places his hands on a plough and looks back is not fit for the kingdom of God. This is the reason why Jesus did not leave His preaching to attend to His Mother and ‘Brothers’ who were standing outside asking to see Him. Jesus made a statement on that occasion that reveals His disapproval of tribalism: “Who is my mother, and who are my brothers? … For whoever does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister, and mother” (Matthew 12:48-50).

Brethren, we cannot claim to be a Christian, yet our love is restricted to certain people because they are our family or tribe. Tribalism is against the spirit of Christianity. Jesus would say: “If you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you salute only your brethren, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same” (Matthew 5:46-47)? Tribalism is such a great evil that must be stamped out from our lives otherwise, we remain unbelievers.

This “son of the soil” mentality when it comes to appointments and offices held in the Church is a clear betrayal of Jesus, our Saviour who died not just for the Jewish Nation, but for the entire human race.

Serving God Demands Detachment, hence Jesus would say: “If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it; and whoever loses his life for my sake, he will save it” (Luke 9:23-24).

Without this sense of detachment, we would simply be fake Christians, we would be like people who started building a project and abandoned it along the way; we would be the laughing stock of the world. No doubt, today, Christians (and especially ministers) have become the subject of jokes and comedy shows. Since many Christians have decided to open Churches as business centres whereby every single street in our land has an average of five Churches, the people have concluded that there are no more authentic Churches.

Jesus concluded today’s Gospel passage by saying: “Therefore, whoever of you does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple” (Luke 14:33). How sad that while Jesus commands His disciples to renounce their personal property, today’s ministers go about preaching prosperity; the insatiable acquisition of wealth by all means and the worship of riches. What a contradiction!

Have a splendid Sunday. God loves you.