"If you do not hate your father and mother, wife, children, brothers and sisters,
even life itself, you cannot be my disciples."

Is this a bad translation? Did some reporter make a terrible mistake? How can Jesus who told us to love even our enemies, tell us to hate anybody, much less our family?

But Jesus knew what he was doing as he prepared us for the narrow door, the hard & agonizing times. He prepared us to "finish strong." Jesus did not put "spin" on the truth, like some politicians, who tell lies so they will never offend a voter. Jesus wants us to know that some of our hills are steep.

It is easy to say, "I'm a Catholic"  when surrounded by the majority. It is harder when you are standing against the majority on important issues like: abortion; mercy killing of the elderly; capital punishment; racism and sexism; business wants versus the needs of the poor.

To the Hebrew people, the word "hate" means, "to love less than." So the correct translation is: "If you do not love your family, less than you love me, you cannot be my disciple. "

Jesus is using exaggeration to make a point. If you ever had to choose between family and God, and it will never happen, but if it did happen, "Choose God!"

Someone or something has to be the first love of your life. If you want to be a Catholic Disciple, then make God first and you will always make family first and church first and neighbor first, because God does not live up in the sky but in each one of us.

To love God "is" to love wife, or husband or family. To love wife or husband or family is to love God.

Jesus was a strong finisher. At his death he cried, "it is finished." He did not quit or avoid steep hills. Our climb with Jesus through that narrow, hard & agonizing door is not going to be easy, but it is the peak worth giving up life for.

Studying the Bible will help us understand what God is trying to tell us, personally and as a group.