This morning I left home extra early to go to St. Andrew's, North Weald to celebrate their 9.30 a.m. Mass as today is also the day of the North Weald Airfields Air Day and I thought the traffic could be difficult. In the event there didn't seem to be any around where I had to go. After a long interregnum St. Andrews, together with the parish of St. Mary Magdalene, await their newly appointed parish priest.
The Gospel reading contains one of the difficult saying of Jesus in which he talks about “hating” our families. I pointed out that this had to be compared to his own concern for his mother when he was dying on the cross and gave her into the care of St. John. His own family had been against him; St. Mark reported that: “his family set out to take charge of him saying ‘He is out of his mind’” and St. John reports “not even his brothers believed in him” In St. Matthews Gospel Jesus says: “Anyone who loves his father or mother,son or daughter, more than me is not worthy of me”.Jesus is not asking us to despise our own flesh and blood but is comparing our mission with our priorities. This comparison means that we must love our families a great deal but love him more.
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