It's obvious that Jesus did not want to deceive anybody about the difficulty of being his disciple. In the gospel he is setting down three very hard conditions and demands. If one wants to be his disciple, one must break away from (“hate”) one's family, goods and one's own life. These demands are unacceptable by one who wants to be led by human arguments. They can be understood and accepted only by one who has been granted the ''wisdom from above'', as we read in the first reading. The letter to Philemon is a beautiful example of the practice of love, forgiveness and detachment from material goods. Some people reply to these difficulties by saying that in the language of Jesus the verb ''to hate'' means also ''to love less'' or ''to have less importance''. This is true, but I don't think this is the right solution. Why? In the first place because love can never be constrained within predefined limits. The greater the love the better, and God takes as addressed to him all love shown to people. There is no danger of loving too much, therefore, of exaggerating. Moreover, it makes no sense to reduce the severe words of our Master to a matter of quantity: ''to love more, to love less.'' Jesus can certainly not be speaking of ''hatred'', but of ''clear cuts'' whenever necessary to remain faithful to the gospel. So here ''to hate'' means certainly to break even the dearest bonds if they are a hindrance to love.