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In our Gospel today, Jesus says “Whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, even life itself, cannot be my disciple.” Our feast today provides us a great story of what those words mean.
Euphrosyne, born back in the 5th Century, was an only child. As such, her father Paphnutius arranged a marriage for her to a well-to-do young man from a prominent family. This wasn’t the life that Euphrosyne wanted for herself. She wanted a life of deep and spiritual faith, so she came up with a solution to solve her problem. She ran away from home, took on a new identity of a young man named Smaragdus, and joined a monastery.
Now if Jesus’ words seem a little harsh to you today, don’t worry. This story has the happy ending we would hope for anyone. It turns out that Paphnutius felt a tremendous guilt about what happened with Euphrosyne, and he turned to the monastery for help. The abbot placed Paphnutius under the care of Smaragdus for spiritual direction. Paphnutius asked Smaragdus for guidance in how to live a spiritual life, and Smaragdus gave him instruction for many many years.
Eventually Smaragdus fell ill, and only then did Paphnutius realize the truth about his spiritual director’s identity. He realized he had been reunited with his daughter this whole time, and he nursed Smaragdus until the end of his child’s life. Then Paphnutius followed in his child’s footsteps, taking Smaragdus’ place in the life of the monastery.
We are called to put Jesus first in our lives always, though our hope is that others, even those in our own family, will follow us in that vocation so that one day we all might be able to truly claim that we belong to Jesus Christ and to Christ Jesus alone.