you cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not follow me, carrying his own cross, cannot be my
disciple.

Do you build a house without first sitting down to count the cost, to see whether you
have enough to complete it? Otherwise, if you, have laid the foundation and are not able to finish
it, everyone will make fun of you: ‘This fellow began to build and was not able to finish.

And when a king wages war against another king, does he go to fight without first sitting down to
consider whether his ten thousand can stand against the twenty thousand of his opponent?

And if not,while the other is still a long way off, he sends messengers for peace talks. In the same
way, none of you may become my disciple, if he doesn’t give up everything he has.

“Whoever does not follow me,carrying his own cross, cannot be my disciple.”

Read:
The book of Wisdom extolls the inscrutable wisdom and ways of God. Paul sends Onesimus to
Philemon asking the latter to be generous, kind, and brotherly to Onesimus. Jesus speaks of the
nonnegotiability of giving ‘primacy to God’ in following him.
Reflect:
Jesus observes that it will be foolhardy for anyone to venture into any business or construction or
war without a realistic assessment of one’s resources. However, when it comes to spiritual edifice
or combat, the honest truth is that we never have enough personal resources to succeed. If we do
not have the humility to acknowledge it from the very start, great will be our fall. So, we must
embrace Plan B, which should ideally be Plan A: Acknowledge our inability, and beg resources
from God Himself; or, rather, beg God to take over from the very beginning, and we join
whatever resources God has provided us with. Even the task of loving God above and beyond
everyone and everything can be realized only by God’s own Grace. In the end, if at all we boast,
we can only boast of God’s own works in us
(1 Cor. 1:31).
Pray:
For the grace to give primacy
to God in everything.
Act:
Read and meditate on Psalm 139.

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