Follow in my footsteps. Homily for the 13th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A.

Jesus demands of his followers a loyalty which transcends even the closest of family ties. The Scriptures have a word for giving our lives to anything other than God. That word is idolatry. Idolatry is a way of naming anything—apart from God— that commands my ultimate loyalty, that shapes my decisions, that I cannot imagine losing, that quietly becomes the centre around which my life revolves. Even the love we have for our own family can become disordered if it takes the place that belongs to God alone.