A disciple is a living sacrifice.

In today’s gospel, Jesus describes the three kinds of sacrifices needed to be His disciple. First, we must put our relationship with God above all others. Jesus speaks of “hating” those with whom we have strong connections. Jesus’ words here are not meant to be taken literally. He is using common phrasing of His time that the people would have understood to mean “put God first”. (Just like today—if I say someone “kicked the bucket”, you would know I mean someone died. There is no literal bucket kicking going on.) So we do not have to “hate” those we hold dear, but we must sacrifice having them be first in our lives. That place belongs to God alone.

Jesus goes on to say we must carry our crosses and follow Him. We must sacrifice our selfish desires and not shirk our responsibilities to others. At times, we may want to give up. But when we humble ourselves before the Lord, we are given the strength to bear our burdens. The third sacrifice we must make to be disciples of Jesus involves avoiding the earthy “stuff” that gets in the way of our goal—eternal salvation. When we get attached to material, secular things, our commitment to God is lessened.

To live a life of discipleship is to live a life of sacrifices. We must continually strive to put God above all others, carry our crosses and follow Him, and avoid the temptations of earthly things. It isn’t easy. Yet it is a small price to pay in this life for eternal salvation in the next one