23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time

Jesus demands detachment if we are to be His disciples. Detachment from what though? Everything that is not God!

That may sound extreme, but Jesus makes clear the importance of proper detachment: "anyone of you who does not renounce all his possessions cannot be my disciple" (Luke 14:33).

What does it mean to renounce all our possessions? It means to put them in proper order. It means to love Jesus so completely that He is enough. It means admitting that anything that is not God risks becoming an idol. It means only Jesus will truly satisfy the ache we all share for more.

The saints of the Church show us what this looks like. Saint Therese of Lisieux claimed, "True love is found only in complete self-forgetfulness, and it is only after we have detached ourselves from every creature that we find Jesus."

To follow Jesus without this proper detachment from things of this world is to not completely follow Jesus; it is to be led away on side-quests for worldly trinkets instead of the great adventure to be possessed by Love Himself.

Our wills are weak and twisted because of sin. We have settled for false satisfactions and empty treasures. Jesus offers us everything by offering us Himself. The process of detachment is the process of learning to love everything in proper order. Detachment doesn't mean that we don't get to own stuff anymore, but it does mean that our stuff doesn't get to own us anymore.

We were made by God and for God.

Detachment is how we give God what is already His.

Be not afraid!

Saint John Paul II, pray for us!