Resolute Following of Jesus
1. On the Way with Jesus
2. Radical Discipleship
Introduction
1. On the Way with Jesus
A farmer who looks back while he is plowing will certainly make crooked furrows and perhaps not plow some parts of the field at all. Jesus invites us again today to follow him and to do so by going his way, not our crooked one. Once we have accepted his invitation, we should not look back to regret our choice or to dwell on past mistakes. Let us go ahead with Jesus, also when the going is rough. We ask the Lord to give us the strength to follow him all the way.
2. Radical Discipleship
When we hear the radical demands that Jesus makes on those who want to follow him, we think perhaps that these are for people with special vocations, like missionaries and religious. Missionaries are thought to be people sent on hard and distant missions. But, Jesus’ radical demands are meant for every disciple. The roads cannot be easy. Once we follow him, we have to be consistent. We have to love even when it demands sacrifices. We have to love even enemies. We have to be honest through and through. But if we can do this, we will see how happy and free this makes us. We ask the Lord that we may follow him always.
First Reading: Follow the Lord Without Conditions
Called to become God’s prophet, Elisha wants to add conditions to his response. He is made to understand that he has to follow God without conditions, as a free person.
1 Reading: 1 Kings 19:16b, 19-21
The LORD said to Elijah: “You shall anoint Elisha, son of Shaphat of Abelmeholah, as prophet to succeed you.” Elijah set out and came upon Elisha, son of Shaphat, as he was plowing with twelve yoke of oxen; he was following the twelfth. Elijah went over to him and threw his cloak over him. Elisha left the oxen, ran after Elijah, and said, “Please, let me kiss my father and mother goodbye, and I will follow you.” Elijah answered, “Go back! Have I done anything to you?” Elisha left him, and taking the yoke of oxen, slaughtered them; he used the plowing equipment for fuel to boil their flesh, and gave it to his people to eat. Then Elisha left and followed Elijah as his attendant.
Responsorial Psalm: Ps 16:1-2, 5, 7-8, 9-10, 11
R. (cf. 5a) You are my inheritance, O Lord.
Keep me, O God, for in you I take refuge;
I say to the LORD, “My Lord are you.
O LORD, my allotted portion and my cup,
you it is who hold fast my lot.” R.
I bless the LORD who counsels me;
even in the night my heart exhorts me.
I set the LORD ever before me;
with him at my right hand I shall not be disturbed. R.
Therefore my heart is glad and my soul rejoices,
my body, too, abides in confidence
because you will not abandon my soul to the netherworld,
nor will you suffer your faithful one to undergo corruption. R.
You will show me the path to life,
fullness of joys in your presence,
the delights at your right hand forever. R.
Second Reading: The Spirit of Freedom
Christ died to make us truly liberated people, free from our selfishness and from everything that alienates. His Spirit of freedom is alive in us if we know how to love and serve.
2 Reading: Gal 5:1, 13-18
Brothers and sisters: For freedom Christ set us free; so stand firm and do not submit again to the yoke of slavery. For you were called for freedom, brothers and sisters. But do not use this freedom as an opportunity for the flesh; rather, serve one another through love. For the whole law is fulfilled in one statement, namely, You shall love your neighbour as yourself. But if you go on biting and devouring one another, beware that you are not consumed by one another. I say, then: live by the Spirit and you will certainly not gratify the desire of the flesh. For the flesh has desires against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; these are opposed to each other, so that you may not do what you want. But if you are guided by the Spirit, you are not under the law.
Alleluia: 1 Samuel 3:9; John 6:68c
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Speak, Lord, your servant is listening;
you have the words of everlasting life.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.
Gospel: We Must Be Free to Follow the Lord
Like Jesus on his way to his death in Jerusalem, the disciples must give up all security to be loyal to the mission Jesus has given them and to be free for people.
Gospel: Luke 9:51-62
When the days for Jesus’ being taken up were fulfilled, he resolutely determined to journey to Jerusalem, and he sent messengers ahead of him. On the way they entered a Samaritan village to prepare for his reception there, but they would not welcome him because the destination of his journey was Jerusalem. When the disciples James and John saw this they asked, “Lord, do you want us to call down fire from heaven to consume them?” Jesus turned and rebuked them, and they journeyed to another village. As they were proceeding on their journey someone said to him, “I will follow you wherever you go.” Jesus answered him, “Foxes have dens and birds of the sky have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to rest his head.” And to another he said, “Follow me.” But he replied, “Lord, let me go first and bury my father.” But he answered him, “Let the dead bury their dead. But you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.” And another said, “I will follow you, Lord, but first let me say farewell to my family at home.” To him Jesus said, “No one who sets a hand to the plow and looks to what was left behind is fit for the kingdom of God.”
Commentary
James and John were known as “the Sons of Thunder.” Many young people (even in ancient times, it seems) are Sons of Thunder for a few years. Those two could also be called Sons of Lightning. “Do you want us to call down fire from heaven to reduce them to ashes?” (Today’s “Holy Ghoooost FIRE!”), – they asked Jesus, when they were refused hospitality in Samaria. Ashes: that’s what Sons of Lightning usually want to leave behind them (“FIRE! FIRE! FIRE! Burn them!”). I wonder what Jesus said when “he rebuked them.” I would have loved to hear the words. But, what would you have said? Could anyone then have imagined then the great apostles that they were to become? Jesus didn’t expect them to be old men while they were still young. In fact, young people who have no fire in them are likely to become very boring and, later on, begrudging old people.
The pattern is the same throughout. Jesus took people as they were, and through his influence they were transformed. He led them into the unknown. The later John—the John of the Letters, say—would have been the Unknown to the younger John. Jesus always leads us into the Unknown. “The Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head,” he said to the man who wanted to follow him. Leave the past behind, he says, “Leave the dead to bury their dead.”
If I crave for security and certainty, if I have a horror of the unknown, if I use my religion only as an anchor in the past, then I am denying the Gospel more effectively than any atheist could. And I am laying the foundation for a very boring old age. Like we noted yesterday, like Peter-like Paul, we wait on the Lord, for his grace to be able to plow-on, to drive forward without being lousy nor indulge looking at the past.
Blessing
Jesus has been with us in this Eucharist
to set us free from our fears,
from the deadening power of selfishness,
from all our pessimism,
to open us to the power of life,
of hope and youth,
that we may follow him without hesitation
on his road to the Father and to people.
May this freedom become real
in our everyday lives,
with the blessing of almighty God,
the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit. R/ Amen.
Let us go with the Lord to serve people. R/ Thanks be to God.