What is Jesus Asking You to Let Go?

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

There is a line in today’s Gospel that can sound too strong: “Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.” Jesus is not trying to scare people away. He is trying to make something clear: following Him is not an accessory to life. Discipleship costs something because love costs something. If following Jesus never asks us to surrender anything, change anything, or lose anything, then we may be following an idea of Jesus rather than Jesus Himself.

Jesus tells the crowd to “calculate the cost.” That is interesting, because we usually think of faith as something emotional: feeling close to God, feeling peaceful, feeling inspired. But Jesus speaks about a decision. A builder sits down and calculates. A king sits down and considers. In other words, discipleship is not just about enthusiasm at the beginning; it is about fidelity when the excitement is gone. It is easy to say, “Lord, I will follow You,” when everything is going well. The real question is: Will I still follow Him when obedience becomes inconvenient, when prayer feels dry, when forgiveness is difficult, when my plans are interrupted?

This is where St Charles Borromeo becomes such a powerful witness. He had status, influence, comfort, and every reason to live an easy life. Instead, he allowed Christ to disturb him. He gave himself to reform, to the poor, to the sick, and to the renewal of the Church. Holiness for him was not simply avoiding sin. It was allowing God to rearrange his priorities. And maybe that is the uncomfortable question for us today: What is Jesus asking me to rearrange? What am I holding so tightly that I would struggle if God asked me to surrender it?

Jesus even says that anyone who does not “renounce all his possessions” cannot be His disciple. That does not mean every Christian must own nothing. It means nothing can own us. Our possessions can own us. Our reputation can own us. Our need to be liked can own us. Our anger can own us. Even our plans for the future can become something we refuse to place in God’s hands. The cross often begins there: not with something dramatic, but with the quiet surrender of saying, “Lord, this matters to me, but You matter more.”

So perhaps today we do not need to ask, “Am I doing enough for God?” A better question might be: Is there anything I would refuse to give Him? Jesus does not ask for part of our life because He wants all of our love. And strangely, when we finally stop clutching everything so tightly, we discover that surrender is not the loss of life. It is the beginning of freedom.

Prayer: Lord Jesus, show me what I am holding more tightly than I hold You. Give me the courage to carry the cross You place before me, the wisdom to let go of what keeps me from You, and the grace to choose You again, especially when it costs me. Through the prayers of St Charles Borromeo, make my life fully Yours. Amen.

– Homily by Rev. Fr. Patrick Agbeko