Memorial of Saint Jerome, Priest and Doctor of the Church
As earlier this week with our Gospel of those who hesitated to enter the vineyard, we hear of the three “would be disciples” of Jesus, finding that while our hearts and minds often get in the way of following Jesus, our “buts” can as well. Jesus encounters three people who want to follow Him “but” there is something they wish to do first. Jesus, however, passes on without them.
Why?
Because Jesus calls us to follow Him; these three men were asking Jesus to follow after their own priorities of convenience and ease, of the dead, and of family. While all their concerns strike us not only as reasonable but even in some cases pious, none of them are more important than following Jesus, especially when He is standing before you! For Jesus put nothing before us: He had no place to rest His head, even from His birth; He came to free us from the burden death by His own; He came to us orphans to make us children of His Father forever. With Jesus, there is no “but”: He always put us before Himself.