The good news revealed by Jesus includes many demanding and sometimes scandalous teachings. As the writer of today’s first reading discerns, we probably would not have come to the same conclusions as God if we were in charge. When it comes to living how God wants us to, “who could have learnt it, had you not granted Wisdom, and sent your holy spirit from above?”

To be a Christian is to believe that God has shown us who he is and what he wants from us, even if that means embracing what the rest of the world derides as shameful foolishness.

The second reading presents a perfect example of the wisdom of God colliding with the wisdom of the age. Paul, writing from prison, exhorts a fellow Christian, Philemon, to welcome and free his runaway slave, Onesimus. This was a powerfully countercultural appeal in a status-obsessed Greco-Roman society where slavery was as common as owning cars is today.

Runaway slaves could expect severe punishment or execution if they were caught. The culture was so dependent on the practice that society stood against any show of leniency to slaves. But Paul doesn’t just ask Philemon to receive Onesimus back as his slave. He encourages Philemon to free the runaway slave and embrace him as a brother.

The wisdom of God teaches that baptism into Christ establishes an identity that is apart from and superior to all other kinds of social and cultural affiliations. Paul is encouraging Philemon to reject the entire social and moral order that his world was built upon, in order to testify to the love and wisdom of God.

In this week’s gospel, Jesus takes it one rather startling step further and explains that following him requires a willingness to hate even our own relatives. Here Jesus is using a Jewish idiom that uses hyperbole to indicate a clear preference and priority. This is, after all, the same Jesus who commands us to love our enemies, let alone our own flesh and blood.

But the point still stands: God takes priority, even over every other good thing in our lives. Jesus is saying that to follow him means not letting rejection by or condemnation from the world, or even from our own loved ones, stop us from following him.

There will be times in our lives when we face difficult consequences for living the way God wants us to, whether it’s because we’re standing up to the social and moral injustices of our time or because we prioritise God over other things, activities and people. This is why Jesus said, “Anyone who does not carry his cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.”

If we believe that Jesus is who he says he is, the one who ‘straightens our paths’ and ‘saves us by his wisdom’, then let us join him on the road to Calvary and choose his ways over the ways of the world. 

Joseph Doyle

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