When newspaper articles speak of a person’s “loved ones,” they mean “members of
one’s family.” For many of us, our relatives form the core of our closest relationships.
Yet, in today’s Gospel (Matthew 10:37-42), Jesus announces: “He who loves father or
mother, son or daughter, more than Me is not worthy of Me” (Mt 10:37). Since our
families have often been the ones who first introduced us to Jesus, is it possible that
Jesus might diminish their importance?
A principle for interpreting the Scriptures is to understand every passage in relation to
the rest of Scripture.
The fourth Commandment declares: “Honour your father and your mother” (Exodus
20:12). In His Sermon on the Mount, Jesus states, “Do not think that I have come to
abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them” (Mt
5:17). In that same Sermon on the Mount (Matthew, chapter 5-7), Jesus repeatedly
challenges us not only to observe the commandments outwardly but to observe them in
a more interior way.
Actually, St. Thomas explains that we should love our parents and families: “The
intensity of love is measured with regard to the person who loves, and accordingly a
person loves those who are more closely united to him, with more intense affection as
to the good he wishes for them … We love more those who are more nearly connected
with us, since we love them in more ways … This very act of loving someone because
he is akin or connected with us … out of charity, we love in more ways those who are
more nearly connected with us” (2a2ae. 26, 7).
And again, Thomas affirms: “We ought out of charity to love those who are more closely
united with us more, both because our love for them is more intense, and because there
are more reasons for loving them. The intensity of love arises from the union of lover
and beloved: and therefore we should measure the love of different persons according
to different kinds of union … Therefore in matters pertaining to nature we should love
our kindred most” (2a2ae. 26, 8).
Jesus’ cautioning words are, “more than Me.” St. Thomas simply reflects, “The Lord
exhorts that He be placed before any domestic affection” (Thomas Aquinas,
Commentary on the Gospel of St. Matthew).
As supportive as our families may be to us, they do not assume God’s place. Our
relationships with our parents are based on gratitude but gratitude should help us
appreciate our relationship with God. Thomas says “A person should love his parents
…because he loves them as his principles and considered as a more exalted good”
(2a2ae. 26, 11). God is our principle from which we receive existence.
A parent gives nourishment and teaching but as, Thomas notes: “He receives more
abundantly from God. For He Himself teaches us … Likewise He feeds us. Moreover

He preserves us. And this a man has from God more than a son has from His father.
For that reason, God must always be loved more” (Commentary on Matthew).
The big letting go is letting go of what St. Catherine calls “selfish self-love.” Thomas
asserts that even more than loving God more than our families, loving God more than
ourselves is a greater challenge: Thomas affirms that the reason is, “… because
nothing can fill the whole heart except God.”
We can see this, when Jesus asserts: “He who seeks only himself brings himself to ruin,
whereas he who loses himself for Me discovers who he is” (Mt 10:39).
St. Thomas explains: “God is loved as the principle of good, on which the love of charity
is founded; while man out of charity loves himself by reason of his partaking in that
good, and loves his neighbor by reason of fellowship in that good. Now fellowship is a
reason for love according to a certain union in relation to God. Wherefore just as unity
surpasses union, the fact that man himself has a share of the Divine good, is a more
potent reason for loving than that another should be partner with him in that share.
Therefore man, out of charity, ought to love himself more than his neighbor” (2a2ae. 26,
4).
For Thomas, loving God enhances our other loves: “The good we receive from God is
twofold, the good of nature and the good of grace. The fellowship of natural goods
bestowed on us by God is the foundation of natural love, in virtue of which not only man
… loves God above all things and more than himself, but loves every single creature in
its own way, i.e. either by an intellectual, or by a rational, or by an animal, or at least by
a natural love … Much more is this realized with regard to the friendship of charity which
is based on the fellowship of the gifts of grace” (2a2ae. 26, 3).
If God is first than we love not only our relatives but even ourselves in a better way. If
we just love ourselves, we have less. If we love God, we have more.
In today’s second reading, Romans 5: 3-4, 8-11, Paul describes a spiritual dying to
ourselves by which we enter a new life: “Are you unaware that we who were baptized
into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were indeed buried with Him
through baptism into death so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory
of the Father, we too might live in newness of life” (Rom 6:3-4).
On the Cross, Jesus surrendered Himself to the Father and the Father raised Him from
the dead. This is the greatest letting go of self. Paul is announcing that Jesus’ death and
Resurrection are not just something that happened one weekend centuries ago. Paul is
telling us that in Baptism we connect with the dying and rising of Jesus and are
transformed by these saving events.
In baptism, we actually enter into Jesus’ gift of Himself to the Father. The death and
resurrection of Jesus has the power to cleanse us of all sin and to bring us into a new

life. We let go of sin and live a new life. Sin is when we turn from God and live for
ourselves.
Working on a computer, we frequently “refresh” our project. So too by grace, we
constantly refresh our life in Jesus.
St. Thomas Aquinas observes that Baptism gives us “some likeness of Christ Jesus”
(Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on Romans, 473). Paul says, “For as many of you were
baptized into Christ have put on Christ” (Gal 3:27).
How does Baptism allow us to “put on Christ,” specifically “His death”? According to
Thomas, Baptism allows us to enter “into a likeness of His death as re-presenting in
ourselves the very death of Christ” (Commentary on Romans, 473). Paul talks of
“always carrying in the body the death of Jesus (2 Cor 4:10) and declares, “I bear on my
body the marks of Jesus (Gal 6:17).
Paul reflects on the relationship of Baptism with our being incorporated with Christ’s
Resurrection: “As Christ is risen from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we also
may walk in newness of life” (Rom 6:4).
Thomas observes that our “likeness to the Resurrection” is “by the Father’s power, by
which the Father Himself is glorified.” For Thomas, walking “in newness of life’ is to
“advance in life through good works” (Commentary on Romans, 476).
Thomas understands that sin brings a breaking down, similar to that of old age but “…
whatever leads to restoration, i.e., being without sin, is called newness of life: ‘your
youth is renewed like the eagle’s’ (Ps 103:50); … be renewed in the spirit of your minds’
(Ep 4:25) (Commentary on Romans, 476).
Paul continues: “If, then, we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with
him” (Rom 6:8). Thomas explains, “If we are dead to sin by virtue of Christ’s death,” we
“live in the likeness of His life. We shall live the life of grace here and the life of glory in
the future” (Commentary on Romans, 486).

Denis Vincent Wiseman, O.P.,
References to St. Thomas Aquinas’ Commentary on the Gospel of St. Matthew are
taken from the translation of Fr. Paul M. Kimball, Dolorosa Press, 2012, pp. 391-395.
References to the Summa Theologiae of St. Thomas Aquinas give the part of the
Summa, the question and the article. If the passage is found in a response to an
objection that Thomas has introduced in the first part of the article, the Latin word “ad,”
meaning “to,” is added with the number of the objection. The references in these
reflections are taken from the Second Part of the Second Part (2a.2ae. or II-II), with
various articles found in Question 26.

References to St. Thomas Aquinas’ Commentary on Romans are taken from the
translation begun by Fr. Fabian R. Larcher, O.P. and edited by J. Mortensen and E.
Alarcón. The translation was published by the Aquinas Institute for the Study of Sacred
Doctrine, Lander, Wyoming, in 2012, pp. 159-166.
The Book of Revelation reminds us that Jesus frees us from sin by His blood: “He freed
us from our sins by His blood” (Rev 1:5). This freedom from sin comes us through
Baptism as Thomas relates the Sacrament of Baptism with the “blood and water” that
flowed from Jesus’ side after His death (John 19:34).
Thomas compares Jesus’ physical dying with our dying to sin: “Just as we are
configured to His death, inasmuch as we have died to sin, so He has died to His mortal
life, in which there was the likeness of sin, although no sin was there. Therefore all we
who are baptized are dead to sin” (Commentary on Romans, 473).
Paul’s affirmation that we are “buried with Him” is brought out more clearly by the
traditional form of Baptism by immersion in which the person being baptized actually
goes into the water. Thomas notes: “By baptism, we are buried with Christ, i.e.,
conformed to His burial. For just as a buried person is put under the earth, so one being
baptized is submerged under water” (Commentary on Romans, 474).
In the Catholic Rite of Baptism, there are three immersions or three pouring of water
connected with the names of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit: “I baptize you in the name
of the Father, (the priest or deacon immerses the child/adult or pours water upon the
child’s/adult’s head), and of the Son, (he immerses the child/adult or pours water upon
him/her a second time), and of the Holy Spirit (he immerses the child or pours water
upon him/her a third time).”
Thomas understands that the three immersions are not only Trinitarian but relate to
Jesus’ burial: “There are three immersions in baptism not only to indicate belief in the
Trinity but also to represent the three days of Christ’s burial” (Commentary on Romans,
474).
Thomas acknowledges that usually a person dies before he or she is buried, “But in the
spiritual order the burial of baptism causes the death of sin, because the Sacraments of
the new law bring about what they signify” (Commentary on Romans, 475).
Thomas makes an important point. The sacraments are signs that bring about what the
sign indicates: “Since the burial that occurs through baptism is a sign of the death of sin
it produces such a death in the baptized… Paul says, ‘we are buried… into death,’ so
that in receiving in ourselves the sign of Christ’s burial we might obtain death to sin”
(Commentary on Romans, 475).
In recognizing that the early Church celebrated Baptism on Holy Saturday, Thomas
connects baptism with Christ’s burial. In affirming that Baptism was also celebrated on

the Vigil of Pentecost, Thomas calls attention to the role of the Spirit: “… in honor of the
Holy Spirit, from whom the water of baptism derives its power to cleanse: ‘Unless one is
born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of heaven” (Jn 3:5)’”
(Commentary on Romans, 474).
Paul reflects on the relationship of Baptism with our being incorporated with Christ’s
Resurrection: “As Christ is risen from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we also
may walk in newness of life” (Rom 6:4).
Thomas observes that our “likeness to the Resurrection” is “by the Father’s power, by
which the Father Himself is glorified.” For Thomas, walking “in newness of life’ is to
“advance in life through good works” (Commentary on Romans, 476).
Thomas understands that sin brings a breaking down, similar to that of old age but “…
whatever leads to restoration, i.e., being without sin, is called newness of life: ‘your
youth is renewed like the eagle’s’ (Ps 103:50); … be renewed in the spirit of your minds’
(Ep 4:25) (Commentary on Romans, 476).
Paul continues: “If, then, we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with
him” (Rom 6:8). Thomas explains, “If we are dead to sin by virtue of Christ’s death,” we
“live in the likeness of His life. We shall live the life of grace here and the life of glory in
the future” (Commentary on Romans, 486).
Paul asserts: “As to His death, He died to sin once and for all; as to His life, He lives for
God” (Rom 6:10). Thomas notes that this doesn’t mean that Christ sinned: “Sin had no
place whatever in Him, ‘who did not know sin’ (1 Pet 2:22)” (Commentary on Romans,
487).
Thomas explains “Christ died to take away sin: ‘for our sake He made Him who knew no
sin to be sin” (2 Cor 5:21), i.e. a victim of sin. In another way, because He died to the
life of sinful flesh, i.e. to a suffering and mortal body: ‘God sent His own Son in the
likeness of sinful flesh’ (Rom 8:3)” (Commentary on Romans, 489).
In both ways, Christ died once: “He wiped out all sin through one death: ‘by a single
offering He has perfected for all time those who are sanctified’ (Heb 10:14). Therefore,
He does not need to die again for sin: ‘for Christ also died for sins once for all’ (1
Pet:18)… ‘Just as it was appointed for men to die once, so Christ also was offered once
to bear the sins of many’ (Heb 9:27)” (Commentary on Romans, 489).
Paul states: “… as to His life, He lives for God” (Rom 6:10). Elsewhere, Paul writes: “He
was crucified in weakness, but lives by the power of God” (2 Cor 13:4).
Paul continues: “So do you also reckon that you are dead to sin, but alive unto God, to
Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom 6:11). Thomas reflects: “We are conformed to the life of
the risen Christ both with respect to its death to sin … never to return to it, and with

respect to living conformed to God” (Commentary on Romans, 491). Paul announces:
“The life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God” (Gal 2:20).
We are not able to do this on our own but “in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Thomas affirms:
“… through Jesus Christ, through whom we die to sin and live to God; or, in Christ
Jesus, i.e., as incorporated into Christ Jesus, that by His death we may die to sin and by
His resurrection live to God: ‘ He made us alive together with Christ, by whose grace
you have been saved through Christ’ (Eph 2:5).
Denis Vincent Wiseman, O.P.,
References to St. Thomas Aquinas’ Commentary on Romans are taken from the
translation begun by Fr. Fabian R. Larcher, O.P. and edited by J. Mortensen and E.
Alarcón. The translation was published by the Aquinas Institute for the Study of Sacred
Doctrine, Lander, Wyoming, in 2012, pp. 159-166.