Jesus Changed; We Change

Jesus was a baby and a child and a teenager and an adult, just like us. We have no record of Jesus doing anything extraordinary until he was an adult. He had to change before he was ready for the grand and terrible task of love prepared for him.

And we change. We have to change. God’s plan for us is that we change.

Some would say that it doesn't matter what we do, if we accept Christ as our Lord and Savior, we will go to Heaven. Then why don’t we just die at that moment; there is nothing left for us to do. We can’t change.

Of course, Jesus said, "Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord'" will enter the kingdom of Heaven. He even warned some of those who did great things in His name will not be known by Him. Throughout both the Old and New Testaments, God makes it clear that what you say and do is what you will be judged by.

God has also made it clear to everyone that as we spend time on earth, we change. And He has given us the choice to accept the changes He wants for us so that we can be transformed into someone to whom He can say, "Well done, O good and faithful servant."

God gives us many chances to turn to Him, but eventually our last choice will stand. Be ready.

Written by Laura Weston, widow of Deacon Michael

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You know, I am not entirely sure how the priests manage it, but it always seems like the deacons get these readings.

"Hate your mother and father." "Renounce all your possessions." "Hate your wife and children."

What's going on here? This is not the typical nice Jesus that we picture in our mind. Sweetness and light. These things are pretty harsh things about Him. What is happening?

One of the crucial points that we have to remember today is that Jesus took upon Himself our humanity. And our humanity is not a static thing. There are some babies in the congregation today. I don't remember when I was a baby, but I'm different from what I was then.

I see children going to school. I see some people out there who have actually been married for five years or more. In each of those things, they changed. They are different from what they were then and what they would have been had they not gotten married or gone to a particular school or whatever. Part of the human condition is change.

Jesus, when he was crucified on the cross was not a baby. He was a grown man. He changed, and He became pleasing to God. And what Jesus is telling us, something very important in our lives, and it is so important that there is a Greek word for it called metanoia. Change.

And what Jesus is telling us is that the very foundation of who we are and should become is Him. And that everything else comes in a different context and takes on a different character. And that the change in nature that we are supposed to have comes from being a follower of Christ. That is a change.

It is worthless to walk in and say, "Well, I'm Catholic." Okay, so what? Show me how that makes a difference in your life. How are you different?

How is it that your relationship with your spouse is different from what it would be if you weren't Catholic? How is it that your children are different? How is it that you deal with the world? Have you taken Jesus Christ into yourself and changed? Are you something different?

And Jesus is telling us in this reading today that if you don't take the change that comes from believing Christ; if you come to him without hating your mother and father, renouncing your possessions, if you place something in a higher priority than Jesus, you are violating the First Commandment. You are putting someone or something in front of God.

If you do these things that you are so worried about in the world and you treat people differently from the way you would if you loved your neighbor, you are rejecting Christ.

This is a very central aspect of what it means to be a follower of Christ: to change and become something different. What is it that we are called to do on a very most fundamental level? The two great commandments of loving God and loving neighbor, and allowing them to be the core of our existence. And everything else changes in character by virtue of the fact that we have changed. The metanoia of bringing Christ on ourselves.

All of a sudden this hating of father and mother, children, brothers and sisters, means something different in two ways. The first is that the character of your relationship with other people changes dramatically if you base it on Christ.

I have two sisters. They were very annoying people when they were growing up. I'm not going to tell you the details. But my relationship has changed. I'm a convert. I see this. My relationship with them and with the world has changed. It is something different.

The same thing with my parents. My relationship with them changed.

I was talking to a man one time, an older gentleman, and at that point I was taking care of my parents. They had gotten ill. He looked at me in all sincerely and said, "Why do you do that? Why do you take care of your parents: your mother and your father? Why would you do that?"

And I was puzzled by the question. I said, "Let me ask it differently. If you had had the opportunity to take care of your mother and father when they were in need, would you have done it?"

He thought about it for a while and looked at me in all sincerity and said, "No."

That is part of what the metanoia of following Christ is all about. Would you help someone? Would you help the victim along the road to Jericho? Would you look at someone and say that person needs help or that they're a child of God? The answer is: that is what Christ is asking you to do.

And what does this metanoia do? It changes the way you deal with the world. It means I have to be nice to Father Giuseppe. laughter I have to go through the world being nice to people. It's not hard. It's easy.

I'm a lawyer. Sometimes it's harder with other people.

But it changes something else. When you deal with the world in accordance with Christ. You take Christ upon yourself and have changed the way you speak and you act, you change. Because it becomes part of what you are. What you become is someone who deals with the world and people can see by the way you speak and you act that you love God. You love your neighbor. You love the world through Our Lord Jesus Christ because you have changed by taking on Christ.

This is a change that we are called to do. And this change, this change in the way we deal, brings us somewhere else. It changes who we are in a very radical way that is impossible for you or me to do on our own. This change prepares us so that when we die, God will look at us and say, "You have taken upon yourself Christ, and changed yourself to be the way I want you to be. Welcome, to spend all eternity with me in Heaven."

And there is the ultimate change, or metanoia. The change of being a person who is so pleasing to God that we can spend all eternity with Him in Heaven.

So we look at Jesus and He's using harsh words. He's getting their attention, no question. He says, "You can't come to me unless you hate your mother and your father. If you don't take up your cross, you can't be my disciple. If you don't plan ahead and adopt the foundation of Christ, there is nothing. If you do not renounce all your possessions, then it's nothing. I want you to change and become something special. To become something different in me, and spend all eternity with me in Heaven.”

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