Being a follower of Jesus is not so easy. Some people think that we can follow Jesus and live our lives as before, but the reality is that there are times we would be faced with difficult decision of whether we want to follow Jesus completely and faithfully, or we only follow Him when it is convenient to us. For example, we claim to follow Jesus, but if we answer God's call to serve as a missionary in a foreign land where it may be difficult for us to return home, we may have to sacrifice being with our family in their time of need, such as an illness or even death. Also, there may be situations where we may have to go against our family's demands, especially if such demands go against the teachings of Jesus. When faced with such difficult situations, would we still be able to follow Jesus?
In today's Gospel, Jesus reminds us that following Him comes at a cost and sometimes the cost can be quite high, heavy or challenging to bear.
We should be ready to give up everything we hold so dear, take up our
cross and follow Him. This includes having to be detached from people
and things, so that we could be free to do God's will. Would we be
willing to surrender all to follow Jesus, or have we become so attached
to persons and things around us, so much so that such persons and things have become
obstacles preventing us from becoming true disciples of Jesus? When we sing: "I have decided to follow Jesus, no turning back," do we really mean what we sing?
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