Sunday, September 4, 2022

 TWENTY-THIRD SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME, September 4, 2022

(Wisdom 9:13-19; Philemon 9-10.12-17; Luke 14:25-33)

The issue of infant baptism has become controversial at different times in the Church. In the early church some parents did not want their children baptized because they were likely to sin in their youth. Then, during the Protestant Reformation some reformers said that infant baptism is not valid because the person has to make a free decision for Christ. The Church has responded to these approaches with three points.  First, there is evidence of infant baptism in the New Testament. Second, baptism delivers children from the darkness of error into the light of grace. Finally, at baptism parents commit to raising their children in the faith. However, those who were baptized as infants still have to decide for Jesus. Therefore, Jesus challenges us together with the people following him in the gospel today. Jesus tells us: “’ If anyone comes to me without hating his… own life, he cannot be my disciple.”

We have to ask ourselves first how Jesus can make such a sweeping statement. Who is he that we have to love him above all other things? Is he revealing his divine nature in this statement? He may be, but it is also possible that he is identifying himself with the fight against Satan. It is as if a generalissimo asked his troops to fight for him to save the country. Or this weekend we would like to put this example of the world of work. It is as if a union leader were to ask the members to fight for him to win the dignity of the worker.

Then Jesus warns his followers to be aware of what it costs to be his disciple so that they avoid appearing foolish. For the poor of his followers, Jesus gives them the example of a farmer who, before beginning the project, calculates the expenses to build a watchtower in his vineyard. For the rich Jesus compares the preparation for discipleship to a king seeing if he has the troops to defeat another king before he attacks him. In other words, Jesus is challenging his followers to be prepared to make sacrifices to be his disciples.

What St. Paul asks of Philemon in the second reading is no different. Paul wants Philemon to free his slave Onesimus for the sake of Jesus' service. Onesimus sought out Paul after running away from Philemon. He evidently could help Paul so that Paul now wants to get him released. Philemon has to weigh his friendship with Paul and perhaps his membership in the Colossus community against the cost of freeing Onesimus. This cost will be more than the loss of his service. If he frees Onesimus, probably his other slaves will try to gain their freedom by running away to an apostle.

Today's gospel ends with Jesus declaring: "'... anyone of you who does not renounce all his possessions
cannot be my disciple.” What does he mean by this alarming statement? Do we have to destitute ourselves to be Christians? But it's not like that. The statement means that the disciple has to be ready to relinquish his possessions when necessary. As the peasant has to be ready to spend his savings and the king has to be ready to sacrifice his troops, the disciple has to be ready to sacrifice all his goods if necessary. We have several examples of this type of sacrifice. After the crucifixion, Joseph of Arimathea gave his own tomb to bury Jesus. Twenty years ago, the so-called "richest man in the world" gave most of his wealth to charity. Today the war in Ukraine has revealed many willing to open their homes to refugees.

In the movie "Jurassic Park" someone comments that people would pay any amount of money to see an island full of dinosaurs. As interesting as that is, it's worth much more to inherit the God’s Kingdom as a disciple. We should not worry about the costs involved to get it. Let us look at the good that the Kingdom will present us.

Homilette for Wednesday, September 10, 2008

Wednesday of the Twenty-third Week in Ordinary Time

(Luke 6:20-26)

In the gospel today Jesus almost sounds like a Fidel Castro delivering a harangue on economic justice. Some might want to press the mute button for the duration of his sermon. But he is the Lord and definitely has something to say to us that will transcend the speech of political messiahs.

On one hand Jesus addresses those experiencing serious economic deprivation. He is talking to the poor who barely survive and to the mourning who continually experience loss. But he does not mean all the poor, all the hungry, all the weeping, and all the insulted. No, he specifically addresses his disciples -- both then and now -- who follow him on a road that entails hardships. As Jesus’ disciples, there no way to insulate ourselves from deprivation. Every follower must pay, what one theologian, named "the cost of discipleship."

Of course, Jesus does not limit his address to the have-nots but pronounces some choice words to the haves as well. Their future is bleak, he tells them, if they do not use what they have for the good of all. Jesus is not condemning the rich, the sated, the joyful, and the well-spoken of per se but only when they reserve for their exclusive use everything they have. His lesson is similar to that of the legend of King Midas. The god Dionysius gave Midas the choice of anything he wanted. The king foolishly chose to have everything he touched turn into gold. He came to lament his choice, however, when he found that he could not enjoy anything. All the food he tasted, the comforts he felt, even the friends at his side turned into the cold, durable metal.

Homilette for Monday, January 29, 2007

(Mark 5)

Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a German Protestant theologian who taught in the United States before World War II. When Bonhoeffer returned to Germany in the early 1930s, he found himself opposing the rule of the Nazis. Eventually, he was executed for taking part in a plot to kill Hitler. Before he died, he wrote a book called The Cost of Discipleship. In it the theologian explains that there is no such thing as cheap grace. Rather, it will cost one to be a Christian.

Some people are unwilling to pay the price. In the gospel today the Geresene townspeople show no interest in Jesus since he already cost them two thousand head of pigs. Too earnest businesspeople, they cannot appreciate Jesus’ restoring to sanity one of their townspeople, but only take note of their losses.

What does it cost us to follow Jesus? A half hour’s sleep in the morning? Maybe we have to eat our words rather than lash out at some perceived unfairness? Whatever it is, it is a bargain. What we expend is not ours to begin with, but a gift from God. What we receive, is eternal life – the joy of Jesus’ eternal companionship.