"Go and proclaim the kingdom of God"
Lk 9: 51 - 62
If you can take yourself back to your earlier days of
education, the grade school years, try to remember for a moment how many
reasons you gave that your grades were not up to par. For the younger parishioners among us, listen
carefully.
“The dog ate my homework!” I never used that one because I
thought it was a real stretch knowing what our dog would eat. “I have a cold and just don’t feel good
today, can I stay home from school?” I actually tried that once and my mother
made me spend the entire day in bed – I never used that one again. “I forgot my books at school and lost the
homework assignment.” Yeah, right! Excuses, excuses; none of these are
reasons. The real reason is that I’m
just not trying hard enough and I know I can do better but lack the will to do
it. That same principle can be applied
anywhere in our lives. I’m not too busy
to pray or come to Church I just have the wrong priorities and frankly, I’m just
lazy! Actual reasons are hard to come by but excuses are plentiful.
This weekend Jesus continues to teach about the cost of
discipleship. In response to requests by
those who in various ways stated: “I will follow you wherever you go” Jesus
demands: “No one who sets a hand to the
plow and looks to what was left behind is fit for the kingdom of God.” In other words, we must be single focused
on Christ and his mission, leaving behind all other attachments and
distractions, then follow in the way Jesus shows us – to carry out and live his
mission in the world today whether we be married, single, ordained or
religious.
Our Lord hears many excuses from those he invites to follow
him: “I have to bury my Father first.” Well we don’t know if his Father
is dead or alive. Customarily, the
eldest son lived with his parents until their death and was responsible to be
sure all was taken care of properly. So,
that loss of his Father might be years away.
“First, let me say goodbye
to my family.” Well, where is his family and what does “goodbye”
mean? A big going away party that might
take several days? How long before the
invitations go out for that goodbye party?
Yet, Jesus expects an immediate response because to follow him must be
no delay. So, more excuses.
“I’ll follow you wherever you
go.” Jesus responds that I have no fixed home
or place but must carry on from town to town.
One wonders what the response of this eager disciple to be might have
been. “Oh, well let me reconsider this.” Hmmm
The point of these challenging words from our Lord is that we
are called to be single minded and second guess our following of Christ. The hand to the plow image of Jesus today
offers us an illustration that once we set out for Christ it calls us to
totality of life.
So, let’s see: a daily cross and a renunciation of all other
attachments, including familial relationships to a certain degree, to follow
him. I don’t know about you but on the
surface I don’t find that particularly attractive at times. In fact, it may sound a bit over- the – top
and certainly no bargain. It’s quite a price to pay for Christian discipleship
and does not promise the easy way. It’s
somewhat insecure with no guarantee of success or a positive outcome; certainly
not fame, fortune or popularity; maybe for Jesus but for me too? Yet, on a
deeper level, which is where we are always called to go with Jesus’ teaching,
there is something more convincing. What would that be?
This Gospel takes place as Jesus is going up to Jerusalem,
meets a not unexpected hostile reception as he and his disciples travel through
Samaritan territory, and he calms down the hot headed reaction of James and
John to that rejection: “. . . call down
fire from heaven to consume them?”
The point of this journey for Jesus, and for us, is the single
focus of his life on the mission entrusted to him. He is traveling face forward as it were,
without flinching, without looking back or holding on, to carry out his
ultimate prize – our salvation through his death and resurrection. It becomes a journey with us as well as for
him and the model of Christian discipleship. We are like the disciples who
followed him to that Jerusalem.
So, this talk of the “dead bury their dead” and to “not look to
what was left behind” is another way of saying that for all of us, we need to
find our Jerusalem. Do we live our
Christian lives and our rich Catholic traditions in a way that sees them as
treasures above all else or is that just another thing we do? Do we live our
life using excuses as reasons? Jesus’
single minded commitment to his mission is the model and road we should always
stay on as we live our Christian lives. That’s quite a “price” to pay in a
world that says you can have it all because we must choose between
Paul in our second reading from Galatians I think refers to the
daily battle we all face: that between the tensions of spirit and flesh;
between the material world we live in with all of it beauty and advantages, its
challenges and rewards and the world of the spirit, which calls us to higher
values that demand sacrifice and overcoming our own tendency to take the easy
way or to satisfy ourselves through some form of instant pleasure. We must balance our lives as we live in these
two worlds at once. For, as Paul reminds
us, “For freedom Christ set us free . . . you were called for freedom.” To live
and to “serve one another through love” rather than argument and revenge is
what Christ calls us to as we journey to our Jerusalem.
It all ultimately comes down to how we choose to live in this
world. How we choose to grow spiritually and in right relationship with one
another. How we choose to live by greed and self-centeredness or to live by
generosity and compassion; by forgiveness and charity towards our neighbor. If
we freely choose to follow Jesus, then we must learn from his example and walk
in his way. It may cost us more than we
bargain for but imagine the pay off in the end – eternal life. There is a very
good reason why Pope Francis entitled his first official Apostolic Exhortation
the "Joy of the Gospel."
As we gather to break open word and bread with each other, we
welcome Christ among us and once again renew our promise of discipleship, no
matter how much it cost – priceless. So, no more excuses only reasons why we
follow the Lord.
O God, who through the grace of adoption
chose us to be children of light,
grant, we pray,
that we may not be wrapped in the darkness of error
but always be seen to stand in the bright light of truth.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God for ever and ever.
(Collect of Mass)
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