First Reading – Wisdom 9: 13-18
Second Reading – St. Paul’s letter to Philemon: 9-10, 12-17
Gospel – Luke 14: 25-33
Our readings today highlight the difficulties we face in following Christ. Three of Jesus’ expressions in the Gospel make uncomfortable reading:
Firstly ‘If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother, and wife and children, and brothers and sisters, yes, even his own life, cannot be my disciple.’
Secondly, ‘Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.’
Thirdly, ‘…anyone …who does not renounce all he has cannot be my disciple.’
So if we don’t follow these three conditions, can we really call ourselves Christian? But we do consider ourselves Christian and Catholic Christian at that!
Jesus is on his way to Jerusalem; he knows what awaits him. I read a quote from a priest who writes daily homilies; he posed the question: ‘Were the three expressions I mentioned before of Christ talking to himself, convincing himself of what he must achieve?’ As he knew his coming destiny, clearly in life he was abandoning all family and friends and those around him, he was going to bear his own cross and he was renouncing everything of his earthly life. But of course he is speaking to us and generations to come, he is asking us to follow him in a Christ-like life of self-giving and he knows that his disciples and subsequent generations will face similar challenges and be ready to face them.
Biblical scholars tell us that the translated word ‘hate’ in English means something more like ‘to love less’; in other words to consider a Christ-like life of more importance than family, not to set family aside but rather to focus on our life in the family of God and our baptised lives in the family of Jesus.
I don’t know anyone who has not had or does not carry an emotional cross, a physical cross, a mental cross. A friend of ours once said that God does not give us a cross that we cannot bear, he does not give us more than we can cope with. We need prayer and our first reading requires us to ask for wisdom and the holy spirit to: ‘discern what the Lord wills.’
Carrying our cross is part of being a disciple. We hear ever more frequently of what it means to be a disciple and the call to discipleship. Pope Francis emphasised the universal call to discipleship, to share with others our encounter with Christ: this alone is a cross we carry.
In St Paul’s letter to Philemon we hear he is in prison writing to his convert Onesimus who, as a slave, has run away and found Paul in Rome. He wishes to return him to Onesimus to set him free to regard him as a brother and no longer a slave. Perhaps a lesson for us emphasises the need to consider others as brothers and sisters, brothers and sisters in Christ. In doing so we are focussing on Christ’s message and the second commandment of love your neighbour as yourself.
There is a story of a man who died and met Jesus, who said ‘show me your wounds’ ‘Lord I have no wounds’, the man replies. Jesus looked, asked, ‘was there nothing in life worth fighting for?’ I am sure we all encounter a cross of some sort at a point in our lives either personally or someone we know, wounded perhaps through emotional conflict or abuse. physical or mental suffering or abuse. A couple of friends of ours care for children, one who has extreme emotional issues, some have endured sexual abuse or have been unable to live safely with their parents or guardians or have such extreme physical issues that society finds it cannot cope; one such child died when she was 13 in 2019 and the husband makes a daily pilgrimage to her grave in thanksgiving for her life and the strength they were blessed with to care for her. They find the work they do so fulfilling but mentally and physically draining. Their cross which they gladly accept mean though, as they readily acknowledge, as Catholics at Mass they find difficulty in sharing eucharistic celebration together; however, they are demonstrating their Catholic Christianity in such practical ways.
We pray for them to bear their cross for the love of Christ and we ask for ourselves too that on reflecting on our lives as we can today that we can focus on an embrace with the Christ who gave up everything for us including his life. Perhaps then the message is not so harsh, though without doubt demanding.
This is the high cost of discipleship: to sacrifice the dearest things in life, leaving aside family, possessions, bearing a cross, to live a life fully committed to God.
This committed life calls for planning too. Our two parables in the Gospel remind me of a project I was given when working in one arm of the NHS; I was tasked with implementing a new accounting system which involved long-term planning, long-term hours, setting priorities, meetings and consultations. This idea of focus on the earthly job in hand steers us to a message from the Gospel of focussing life on Christ, getting our priorities right and on the theme of discerning the gifts of wisdom and the holy spirit as we hear in the first reading, ‘…thus the paths of those on earth were set right…’
During the coming week, let us try to reflect in prayer:
‘What does it mean for me to be a Christian?’
How does it affect my life and. with today’s Gospel in our hearts and minds, how does my life influence my being a Christian?
What sacrifices am I prepared to pay?
God bless us all.