SEPTEMBER 8^TH 2013. TWENTY-THIRD SUNDAY OF ORDINARY TIME

Gospel: Luke 14:25-33

­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­Translated from a homily by Don Fabio Rosini, broadcast on Vatican Radio

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Don Fabio’s reflection follows the Gospel reading ...

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GOSPEL                   Luke 14:25-33

Great crowds accompanied Jesus on his way and he turned and spoke to them.
If any man comes to me without hating his father, mother, wife, children, brothers, sisters, yes and his own life too, he cannot be my disciple.

Anyone who does not carry his cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. And indeed, which of you here, intending to build a tower, would not first sit down and work out the cost to see if he had enough to complete it? Otherwise, if he laid the foundation and then found himself unable to finish the work, the onlookers would all start making fun of him and saying, "Here is a man who started to build and was unable to finish". Or again, what king marching to war against another king would not first sit down and consider whether with ten thousand men he could stand up to the other who advanced against him with twenty thousand? If not, then while the other king was still a long way off, he would send envoys to sue for peace. So in the same way, none of you can be my disciple unless he gives up all his possessions.

The Gospel of the Lord: Praise to you Lord Jesus Christ

Kieran’s summary . . . Do the sayings of Jesus in this passage scandalize us? Do we feel that Jesus is being a little too demanding? Surely he doesn’t really expect us to hate our own lives and give up all of our possessions? Jesus’ use of the examples of the tower and the army, however, serve to emphasize the entirely reasonable nature of what Jesus is saying. When we go to build a tower or fight a battle we do our calculations first so that we will be in a position to bring the project to fruition. In the same way, the project of being a disciple of Jesus will never come to fruition if certain basic preconditions are not met. Authentic discipleship entails putting Christ before all material goods and human relationships. If Christ is not first in our hearts, then he doesn’t really figure in our hearts at all. What dominates our hearts in that case is the material wellbeing or human relationship that we have failed to renounce for the sake of Christ. So this Gospel reading really is very radical after all! And that is because true discipleship is something utterly radical. Christ must be first in our lives. No human relationship, material comfort, or personal project must take the place in our lives that rightfully belongs to the Lord.

True discipleship requires that our hearts are radically oriented to Christ and not to material things

This passage confronts us with the radical character of the Gospel in all of its rawness. This rawness is well preserved in the English translation which (like the Greek text) says, “If any man comes to me without hating his father, mother, wife, children, brothers, sisters, yes and his own life too, he cannot be my disciple” [the Italian translation has, “if any man loves his father, mother, etc., more than me, he cannot be my disciple”]. It would be wrong, however, to think that Jesus is setting down extreme and irrational demands on anyone who wishes to be a disciple. Rather, he is making the comment that if we do not display a certain attitude towards him (where we put him before everything else), then we simply are not his disciples. This becomes clear when Jesus goes on to speak about what it takes to succeed in building a tower or winning a battle. These two examples provide the key with which we must read the radical statement of Jesus that appears at the beginning of the Gospel. In order to build a tower one must do A, B and C. In order to win a battle, one must do A, B and C. In order to be a disciple, the fundamental thing one must do is not to have their hearts enslaved to other things. It is simply not possible to cross the threshold of the kingdom of heaven, to belong to the risen Christ who is calling us to life, if we have the wrong priorities within our hearts.

Detachment from material things is the fundamental precondition for entering into authentic relationship with Jesus

At the beginning of the passage, Jesus calls us to place our relationship with him before all other relationships in our lives. At the end of the passage, he asks us to put him before all of our possessions. This, perhaps, is the most scandalous of all of Jesus’ sayings. But if the goods of this earth wield such influence over us that they cannot be renounced, then they have become our masters. If we cannot say no to them, then they have become the fundamental co-ordinates of our behaviour. Once possessions assume a guiding role in our lives, then they impede our ability to serve others and to love. It is impossible to love another if we are not ready to lose everything. This is why there is an undeniable call to poverty in the Gospel. There can be no doubt that we are called to be detached from material things, free from bondage to the things of this world. Even in the consecrated life, people claim that they do not “own” anything, yet they are often guaranteed a certain standard of life to which they become attached. The quality of our material wellbeing should be made secondary to my following of the Lord Jesus. If my comfort and security is placed before everything else, then I do not follow the Lord Jesus authentically.

Christianity often compromises itself by giving a priority to material goods. True discipleship must be radically oriented towards Christ, whatever the repercussions for my material wellbeing

It is a constant source of discouragement to observe the common form of “Christianity” that takes a compromised attitude towards the possessions of this world. This “Christianity” has been watered down so that it is palatable and inoffensive to people. But any purported “discipleship” that places a priority on certain “fundamental” material securities cannot be real. It cannot go forward for long. If we claim to be Christian, but do not wish our discipleship to have any repercussions for our material wellbeing, then we will quickly run aground. Like the tower that Jesus describes in the Gospel, this “project” will never see completion. If we think we can marry a spouse without putting that relationship before every other material thing that we possess, then we are deluding ourselves. If this marriage is to be authentic, then my love for my spouse must come before everything that I am and everything that I possess.

The relationship with Jesus must take priority over all other human relationships

The Gospel begins by asking that our relationship with Christ be put before every other relationship. Sometimes we make the mistake of thinking that relationships of affection don’t carry any dangers with them. But relationships can bind people in negative ways, cutting the wings of vocations that are never realized, confining people in infantile states where they do not reach full maturity. Family relationships are important but they should never take on an absolute character. Think of Abraham who was asked to put God before his affection for his only son. It was not that Abraham was asked to renounce his affection for his son. Instead he was asked to place this relationship in the correct position with respect to the Lord who is the source of life. Evidently we have to be very careful here. It would not be right if a misguided zeal for God led us to do things that were inhuman. We will keep our feet on the ground if we keep the real point of this Gospel in front of us. The point is that the relationship with Jesus must be primary. From the relationship with Jesus, much love and much joy will come into our lives. The refusal to let the goods of this world take priority over Christ does not kill the joy and love in our lives but makes our lives even more joyful!

If we put others before Christ then we will never reach Christ at all

If a husband and wife consider the horizontal love between them to be the most fundamental thing, then their relationship is very fragile. But if the spouses put their relationship with God first, then they find themselves able to love the other spouse in a much more abundant way. If our relationships with others take on an all-dominant character, then we might find we are making an investment in something that cannot repay our outlay. The other might become sick, mentally ill, or even die. Thus, we cannot build the foundation of our lives on father, mother, spouse, children. I cannot even base my life on my own particular existence. I must simply love the Lord more. In the Greek (and in the English) the text says that I must “hate” these family members and even my own life. This verb registers the forceful way in which we must reject any dependency on family ties that impedes our relationship with Christ. Family ties are good in themselves, but like anything that is good they can become diseased. In order to follow Christ we must belong to him totally. And from this we are enabled to love spouses, children, parents, brothers and sisters. If we put others before Christ, then we will never reach Christ at all. These relationships, these material goods, will become obstacles that will prevent us from having life, the authentic life that is the free gift of the Lord. We must “hate” our own life in order to have true life restored to us. And once it is restored to us, we will never lose it.