Homily from Father Chas Canoy
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In Luke 14:25-33, Jesus challenges the large crowds following Him to understand the true cost of discipleship. He makes it clear that being His disciple requires placing Him above all other relationships and attachments—even family, possessions, and one’s own life. To follow Christ means embracing the cross, choosing sacrifice over comfort, and committing fully without holding back. Just as a builder counts the cost before constructing a tower or a king before entering battle, so too must we recognize that discipleship demands total surrender and perseverance. Jesus reminds us that true faith is not half-hearted but a wholehearted commitment to Him above all else.
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Father Chas: All righty. Before I dive into the homily, I wanted to mention something historic happened in Rome this morning, with Italy being six hours ahead, right? So guess what that is? Two huge tapestries of these two young saints here hang down in front of St. Peter’s Basilica as Pope Leo XIV canonized the first two saints of his pontificate, St. Pier Giorgio Frassati and St. Carlo Acutis.
Father Chas: We get to call him Saint now. So pretty awesome. Both of whom, they died young. Saint Pierre Giorgio at 24 due to polio and Saint Carlo at 15 due to leukemia. But they live full lives and have affected so many young people already up to this point. They both are fantastic models for our youth.
Father Chas: Saint Pierre Giorgio Fassari lived in the first half of the 20th century, and he was this joyful, adventurous young man who loved life. We can show a picture of him. There he is. He loved the mountains in particular, hiking and climbing on them. There’s one of him in the mountains. On his final climb before his death, he wrote, “‘Verso l’alto.'”
Father Chas: which means to the heights, which described more than his desire to reach physical mountaintops, but his desire to reach the spiritual heights of a saint. He had this great love for the marginalized and the less fortunate. And one of the beautiful testaments to that was just how packed his funeral mass was with the poor that he had served when he died at the age of 24. And St. Carlo Acutis said,
Father Chas: here is the first millennial saint passing away in 2006 at the age of 15. This teenager saint here is probably the first saint who’s designed his own website. I’m just guessing, right? It was a comprehensive website that featured the various approved Eucharistic miracles from all around the world.
Father Chas: and St. Carlo’s own mother is still very much alive. She was present at this morning’s canonization. Imagine being at your own son’s canonization, right? In fact, it was the witness of her son’s strong faith that deepened her own relationship with God. So our youth can be witnesses to us. You may also recall that St. Carlo, 15-year-old St. Carlo, is going to be one of the 24 saints that’s depicted in the upper part of our apse painting here.
Father Chas: So please be sure to read about these two young saints and watch the video coverage on them as a way to observe their canonization. There’s this documentary on Carlo Acutis called Roadmap to Reality that was showing at Jackson 10, but can now be streamed.
Father Chas: So I know I’ll be touching on this with the school kids on the Wednesday Mass. There’s also just a number of good videos out there that you can watch. Father Randy’s article addresses this briefly as well, a little synopsis of their lives.
Father Chas: But on to the homily. We’re now in Luke chapter 14, and Jesus continues with some very difficult teachings. In the last chapter, Luke 13, Jesus answered the question, Lord, will only a few people be saved?
Father Chas: and he gave a pretty tough-to-hear response. And this Sunday, in chapter 14, Jesus teaches something very controversial and shocking to the ears of his listeners, both back then and to this very day. When you heard today’s gospel, were you at all scandalized? Yes.
Father Chas: Right at Jesus’ words when he said this, if anyone 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. If Jesus is trying to recruit disciples to follow him, this doesn’t seem to be a very persuasive way of doing it, does it?
Father Chas: What’s going on here? Is Jesus teaching hate? I mean, he uses that language. Perhaps we don’t know what to make of these shocking words. At this point of his public ministry, Jesus is making quite the splash. He has throngs of people coming out to him because they were all amazed at his inexplicable healings, miracles, astonished at his teachings that turned the world’s ways upside down. And so Jesus is sort of
Father Chas: laying down the conditions for what it means to truly follow him, what the cost of true discipleship is. But does he really mean what he says here? That if you want to be my follower, you have to hate your father and mother, your wife and your children, brothers and sisters? That sounds so inconsistent with Jesus’ other teachings. After all, Jesus has said that we are to love our neighbor as ourselves.
Father Chas: And eight chapters earlier from this in Luke, Jesus tells us to do the unimaginable, and that is to love even our enemies. So what gives here? What sense does it make to love your enemies but to hate your family? So this seemingly contradictory statement should reveal to us that Jesus doesn’t mean these words literally, and that this is one of those instances where Jesus uses a not uncommon way in his ministry to make a point.
Father Chas: which is the use of hyperbole. Hyperbole are exaggerations, hyperboles are exaggerations or claims that are not to be taken literally, but to make a strong point. For example, man, I would kill to be able to meet Pope Leo XIV personally and shake his hand. Well, I hope you wouldn’t literally break the sixth commandment to go meet the Holy Father.
Father Chas: right? But it sure is an effective way to really emphasize how much you desire to meet him. And so here, Jesus uses some shock value to make a point and to express this teaching in a way that people would remember it. Probably the most memorable hyperbole Jesus used was when he said, if your hand causes you to sin…
Father Chas: See, you remembered, right? You remembered it’s a great device by which to make a point. Right?
Father Chas: Jesus obviously doesn’t mean cutting off your hand literally or plucking out your eye literally, but it sure is a memorable way to say that whatever sinful habit you have or device or situation that you put yourself in that causes you to sin, you better get rid of it because it may very well cost you your soul.
Father Chas: Right? That’s not as memorable as using that figurative language that he just did, this hyperbole. So you can imagine the folks back then spreading this teaching like wildfire. Like, did you hear what Jesus of Nazareth said? This rabbi said that if you don’t hate your father or mother or your wife or your children, your brothers and sisters, you can’t claim to be his disciple. You can’t say that you’re really a follower of his. Right?
Father Chas: Now, given the wider context of his teachings, Jesus doesn’t want us to literally hate our family members, but it sure is an effective way to communicate that you and I and anyone that claims to be his follower can prefer nothing and no one else to him.
Father Chas: If we love our parents, our spouse, our children, or anyone or anything else, we cannot truly claim to be his disciples. Sometimes we’ve seen, we’ve even preferred or prioritized entertaining friends over worshiping Jesus, or prioritized our travel plans, or sporting events, or optional overtime work over Jesus and worshiping him.
Father Chas: But as Jesus himself reminds us today, he is to be loved above all things, all persons and all worldly endeavors. The parallel of this verse in the gospel of Matthew confirms this hyperbolic interpretation of Luke, right? In Matthew chapter 10, he says, Jesus says, whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me. And whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Now for the first century Jew, get this point here.
Father Chas: The fact that Jesus is using hyperbole here for a first century Jew does not necessarily make what Jesus said any less shocking. Now, can you guess why that would be? Put yourself in the shoes of a first century Jew. You hear this carpenter or this builder come from this lowly town of Nazareth, essentially telling you, you need to love me more than your parents, your wife, your children, or any other person. Now, who in the world does this person think he is? Who?
Father Chas: Of the Ten Commandments, the very first commandment that deals with love of neighbor is honor your father and your mother. So how can this Jesus of Nazareth have us go against the Torah and warrant such a demand? The only one who we are to love more than our own flesh and blood is the Lord himself. God himself. God himself.
Father Chas: Yes, because the only one who can command and demand supreme, exclusive, and total love is God himself. You shall love the Shema. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. God is the source of all that is good and beautiful in our lives. And so to love the creature instead of the giver and maker of the creature, even if it’s our parents, spouse, or children, would be totally backward. Because God is the source and has given them to us as gifts. Yes.
Father Chas: Out of his undying love for us. So do you see what Jesus is doing here? Through this outrageous claim that you must love no one more than him, he is revealing his divine identity to them. And that he has all these miracles and profound teachings that back them up. Through all these, Jesus is revealing to them that to quote Jesus himself, before Abraham was… What?
Father Chas: Before Abraham was, remember those words of Jesus, the great I am. He’s revealing that he is not just this guy down and living in Nazareth, but he was existing before all of creation. He’s revealing who he is. But the way that I will reveal my divine glory is not going to be an easy path. So that’s why he…
Father Chas: Quickly says right after that, whoever does not carry his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. People will think you’re crazy because my ways are not your ways. Your thoughts are not my thoughts. Maybe your own family will think you’re crazy. And thus, the use of hyperbole. The fittingness of this, right? And the powers that be in this world will persecute me and even try to kill me.
Father Chas: So I’m just letting you know in advance, you folks that are following me around everywhere in Galilee, it’s not going to be an easy path to follow me. And again, put yourselves in the shoes of a first century Jew, right? When we hear take up your cross in this modern day context, we think of our own hardships, our own difficulties as our crosses, which is good and accurate. But when a first century Jew first heard these words, right?
Father Chas: About the cross. He understood it in terms of being willing to take on the worst and shameful kind of Roman execution. So what Jesus means by the hyperbolic hating even of your own life, he doesn’t mean unhealthy self-hatred. He means if you truly want to be my disciple, you must be willing to go to death with me and for me. Which is precisely…
Father Chas: What many followers of Jesus ended up doing as martyrs. What remains true today as it did back then is Jesus telling us that following, being his follower is going to cost us. It’s going to cost you and me. In fact, as the last line of today’s gospel states, it may cost you everything. The last line states, anyone of you who does not renounce all his possessions cannot be my disciple forever.
Father Chas: And here renouncing all doesn’t mean we have to go be monks. Everybody has to be monks somewhere, though Jesus does call some to that vocation. It means that we recognize that none of it, even our own lives, are ultimately ours, but it’s about God and his purposes. And we are stewards of all the blessings that he’s given us that are used for the building up of God’s kingdom. And by everything, following Jesus may even cost us our very own life here on earth, right?
Father Chas: Blessed Carlo, or Saints Carlo and Pierre Jojo are witnesses to that. The reality of that is not just for the early church, but we witnessed less than two weeks ago in Minnesota that that reality is even in our own day. But guess what? When we give everything of ours to him, the Lord gives everything of his to us. And guess who makes out like a bandit out of that one?
Father Chas: So pray this prayer in the silence of your own heart if you’re so moved. In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen. Beloved Jesus, I desire to truly be your disciple, to follow you at all costs, to prefer you above all things and above all persons, to love you supremely and entirely, to give of myself totally to you as you have given yourself totally to me.
Father Chas: Amen.