1 Kings 19:16b, 19-21;
Galatians 5:1, 13-18; Luke 9:51-62.
AIM: To help the
hearers make an unconditioned commitment to Jesus Christ.
Seventy-one years ago, at Easter
1948, I entered seminary to pursue the goal to which I had aspired from age
twelve: to be a priest. It would be six more years before I reached that goal.
I had many difficulties, and not all those years were happy. But I never
doubted the goal: not for a single day then, not for a single day since.
Upon entering the seminary, we new
seminarians were given a little book called Principles: pithy, short
sayings to guide our lives. One of them, entitled “On getting work done,” said
this: “When work is committed to you, remember your responsibility is for
getting it done, not for providing the reasons why it was not done.” That
impressed me seventy-one years ago. It impresses me still.
The gospel reading we have just heard
tells about a number of people who had reasons for not doing, or for
postponing, something they knew they should be doing. Their reasons were all
good ones. None of them, however, was good enough.
The Samaritans who refuse to give
Jesus hospitality were closely related to Jews ethnically, as close as Sunni
and Shiite Moslems in Middle East today. Like
those two closely related groups, however, Samaritans and Jews were bitter
enemies. In refusing hospitality to a Jewish rabbi and his followers, the
Samaritans thought they were being patriotic. Love of one’s own people and one’s
country is a virtue. But patriotism does not absolve us from kindness to strangers.
In the world of that day hospitality, which is a form kindness to travelers,
was considered all important. The Samaritans thought they had a good reason for
refusing Jesus hospitality. The reason wasn’t good enough.
The man who says to Jesus, “I will
follow you wherever you go,” seems just the kind of disciple Jesus was looking
for: eager to follow the Master and to do what is right. Why, then, Jesus’
warning? “Foxes have dens and birds of the sky have nests,” Jesus tells him, “but
the Son of Man has nowhere to rest his head.” Perhaps Jesus saw in this eager
applicant for discipleship a person who valued personal and financial
security. Should the road which this man is so eager to embark on today prove
tomorrow to be more costly than he had reckoned, he would find reasons to turn
back. Jesus warns him in advance that those reasons would be irrelevant.
Seeking security for one’s self, and for those one loves and for whom one has
responsibility is good. When this stands in the way of wholehearted following
of Jesus Christ, however, something is wrong.
The last two people Jesus encounters
want to postpone the call to follow Jesus. In both cases they give
family reasons. “Lord, let me go first and bury my father,” the first man says.
The second wants to defer joining Jesus until he has said goodbye to his family
at home, as Elisha does in our first reading before leaving home to follow the
prophet Elijah. Care for parents is enjoined by the Fourth Commandment: “Honor
your father and mother.” When it comes to following Jesus Christ, however, all
other duties take a back seat. And one who sets a hand to the plow and looks to
what was left behind, Jesus says, is not fit for the kingdom of God.
None of the would-be disciples in
today’s gospel is without fault. Yet Jesus does not reject any of them. Jesus
meets each of us where we are and challenges us to a decision. Many Catholics
have never really made a decision for Jesus Christ. Their faith is something
they have inherited and take more or less for granted, like their American
citizenship. For most such Catholics their faith is not liberating but
confining. Sooner or later they experience the inner conflict which Paul writes
about in our second reading: “The flesh has desires against the Spirit, and the
Spirit against the flesh; these are opposed to each other.”
How can we resolve that inner
conflict? How can we make our faith what Paul says it should be, when he writes
in that reading: “You were called for freedom, brothers and sisters”? To
experience that freedom, to make our faith a source of joy and not a burden, we
must make a conscious, mature commitment to Jesus Christ with no ifs, ands, or
buts. For most people that seems threatening. In reality it is liberating. Once
we make a deep and unconditioned commitment to follow Jesus Christ, we discover
that though discipleship is costly, it is also the fulfillment of our deepest
longings and desires.
How can we know whether we have made
such a commitment? Ask yourself this question: Can I complete the sentence: “I
will follow Jesus Christ on the condition that ...”? If you can fill in the
blank in that sentence, then you are like the people we meet in today’s gospel:
good people who thought they had reasons to postpone or abandon following Jesus’
call, or not to respond at all.
I began with a story from my youth.
Let me close with another story. A priest was waiting in line at the filling
station he always patronized to have his car filled with gas just before the
long Fourth of July weekend. The attendant worked quickly, but there were many
cars ahead of him waiting for their turn at the pumps. Finally, the attendant motioned the priest
toward a vacant pump. "Sorry about the delay, Father," said the young
man. “It seems as if everyone waits until the last minute to get ready for a
long trip.” The priest chuckled: "I know what you mean, son,” he said. “It's
the same in my business."
Are you ready?
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