Our Lord rather starkly drives this point home in today’s Gospel reading when He insists that following Him means radical, even jarring, detachment from all that we may hold as necessary and precious: “Let the dead bury their dead. But you, go, proclaim the kingdom of God…No one who sets a hand to the plow and looks to what was left behind is fit for the Kingdom of God” (Luke 9:60, 62). For Jesus, there is simply no compromising when it comes to conversion in His way of life. And the same rings true in recovery as the Big Book wisely affirms, “Half measures availed us nothing” (Alcoholics Anonymous). Jesus makes many similar shocking statements throughout the Gospels that demand our radical detachment from all things, most especially from the self and self-will, in order to come into right relationship with God, experience true joy, and receive the gift of eternal life with Him in Heaven (cf. Matthew 12:46-50; Matthew 16:24-25; Matthew 18:5-10; Mark 9:42-48; Luke 8:19-21; Luke 14:26-27; John 15:12-13).
Reflection Questions
- What does radical detachment mean to you in your recovery journey?
- How do you remain attached to persons, places, things, ideas, perceptions, expectations, memories, resentments, pleasures, traumas, successes, or failures?
Daily Mass Readings
First Reading: Job 9:1-12, 14-16
Responsorial Psalm: Psalm 88:10bc-11, 12-13, 14-15
Gospel: Luke 9:57-62
Reflection by Pete S.