05.09.2004 23rd Sunday Ordinary Season Year C
First Reading: Wisdom 9, 131-18 Psalm 89
Second Reading: Philemon 9-10, 12-17 Gospel Reading: Luke 14, 25-33
It is vital to be humble before God, totally humble! The first reading helps
us to understand why, to see how ignorant we are, and to admit that our understanding
of reality, be it material or spiritual, is darkly obscured by our conditioning:
we are obliged to take into account our physical bodies, their weaknesses and
fragility. God's plans would be beyond our comprehension were He not to give
us His wisdom or let us see them. We know so little about the things we see
and touch, that we think that those things are good which are poison, we are
led astray by reasoning which cheats, we follow people we believe to be benefactors
who really only have their own interests at heart and who will leave us more
alone than ever. We truly need to come before God in humility and implore Him
for His Wisdom, the light of His Spirit, the strength that comes from Him, so
that we might not commit errors and that He Himself might manifest in our deeds:
"teach us to count our days and we will achieve wisdom in our hearts. …May
the goodness of the Lord our God be upon us: strengthen the work of our hands"!
This psalm helps us to pray with humility and sincerity and prepares us for
Jesus' words. For several Sundays he has shown us how attachment to material
goods makes fools of us and occupies our hearts which were made for spiritual
realities and closes them to our brothers, the children of God.
Now that his word has prepared us, he becomes very demanding: "So, therefore,
whoever of you does not renounce all that he has, cannot be my disciple"!
Jesus is well aware of the consequences of his words: the disciples could abandon
him, but, from this moment, he wants to be sure not that there are many of them,
but that they are true disciples who love him above everything else. How else
could he have the courage to trust them with the spiritual goods of his realm?
Whoever has material interests to defend is not able to enjoy the communion
of the Holy Spirit with anyone, not with the Lord nor with his brothers. To
be with him in a fruitful and stable manner it is necessary to commit oneself
wholeheartedly to him. If I want to follow Jesus, but remain attached to all
that I have, I will certainly be divided within myself. Indeed my relatives
and friends, even those who say they love me, cannot understand or accept the
decisions I take in following the Lord and I cannot expect them to: I hear his
call in the intimacy of my heart and only I can hear it. One sees parents who
try to hinder their children's choice of faith, brothers who disapprove or deride
their siblings who try to live in the spirit of the beatitudes, others who abandon
those friends who try to be faithful to the commandments and to the decisions
of their Church.
Jesus tries to help us with two simple parables. Whoever wishes to donate some
public monument to his town, even in his own name, does not begin unless he
is sure to succeed or he would be mocked by all. A king, who intends to declare
war on someone stronger than himself, first takes council with his generals
in order to be sure that he and his people will not be crushed and made slaves:
in which case, in order to save himself, he will opt for peace. In the same
way, whoever wishes to commit themselves to Jesus and to follow him, must examine
their ability to live without conditioning from relatives and friends, even
against their opinions, and their ability to live without money, commodities
and riches.
To be with Jesus it is necessary to be prepared to do what Simon of Cyrene did:
to carry the cross, condemned, derided and mocked by everyone.
St Paul, in the second Reading, advises his friend Philemon to take a new approach
in his relationship with Onesimo, the slave who tried to escape. Common usage
would have dictated harsh punishment, but the love for Jesus was to make him
establish a new familiarity even with the slaves. Belonging to the Church and
love for Jesus is more efficacious than old habits!
How much humility is necessary and how much strength to substitute the convictions
of this world with the wisdom of God! This latter, however, gives life, gives
peace and sanctifies our lives. Together with Jesus our life will "bear
much fruit"!