October 29: Discipleship / El Discipulado

The Gospels show us how Jesus sometimes had a way of turning questions around. He often changed questions posed to Him from the theoretical to the personal. For example, when asked “Who is my neighbor?” He turned it into another question, “Who should I be neighbor to?” Likewise, in Luke 13, 22-30, He changed a question from “Will the saved be few?” to “Will the saved be you?”

Jesus, however, did not just change people’s questions into His own new questions, He also provided answers. Like when He told us what we should do if we want to be saved. He said “the way” to salvation is akin to a narrow door. Think about it: if He had said, “It is easy to get into the Kingdom of heaven, don't worry, relax,” isn’t it true that no one, or very few, would consider it worth the effort? Isn’t it true that things that come cheap, or for nothing, appear worthless?

George Bernard Shaw said a cynic was a person who knew the price of everything and the value of nothing. How true! We easily confuse price and value, and so we think that what has no price has no value either. The truth is that we know that anything of real value requires everything of us. What price are we willing to pay to follow Jesus ... our whole heart, mind, and soul?

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Nuestro destino en la vida es ser imágenes de Cristo, llegar a ser hombres y mujeres que se parezcan cada vez más a Él. Si estamos abiertos al Espíritu, Él nos ayudará a llegar a ser cada vez más semejantes a Cristo y Él orará y vivirá en nosotros.    
 Para ser discípulos fieles de Cristo, no es suficiente solo saber sobre el Señor, o venir a la Misa para sentarse a la mesa con Él, o leer la Biblia. Como Jesús nos dice de tantas maneras a lo largo del Evangelio, tenemos que ofrecerle a Él todo nuestro corazón, mente, y alma … y vivir como discípulos suyos y encarnar su palabra en nuestra vida. De no ser así, es como si no le conociéramos a Él y Él no nos conociera a nosotros.