September 5, 2010 TWENTY-THIRD SUNDAY OF THE CHURCH YEAR
5 SEPTEMBER 2010, 5:15, 8:00, 10:30
READINGS: Wisdom 9:13-18b; Philemon 9-10, 12-17; Luke 14:25-33
SAINT MARY PARISH, VIROQUA
Introduction: In the gospel reading today Jesus challenges his followers in the crowd to “calculate the cost of discipleship.” Jesus demands nothing less than total commitment.
1. Jesus says, “No one who does not carry his cross and come after me can be my disciple.” The language Jesus uses seems strange to us. He goes on to say, “Anyone who comes to me without hating father, mother, wife, children, brothers, sisters, yes and his own life too, cannot be my disciple.” Now, that needs some explanation. Perhaps the word for “hate” is better translated as “loving less.” In other words, you must love me more than your family. In his fairly primitive Aramaic language there was no word for more. We would say, “You must love me more than your family.” We know this is what Jesus intended because he also tells us to “love our neighbor as ourselves.” And this is the understanding passed down through the ages of our faith. In the second reading Saint Paul writes a letter to Philemon urging him to receive back his runaway slave, Onesimus. Paul says to Philemon, “Welcome him back not as a former slave but as a brother.” Loving our brother and sister is important; loving Jesus is more important still.
2. We should strive to love our neighbor as Jesus loves us. A priest was speaking to students at a school for the deaf. As an interpreter translated his words into sign language, the priest noticed that she frequently touched her fingers to the palms of her hands. Later he learned that this was the sign for “Jesus,” whose palms were nailed to the cross. In sign language that is the essence of Jesus. Not the halo! Hands that are pierced! Hands that are pierced for love of us. He paid the cost of discipleship to his Father. It was the ultimate price to pay.
3. Many of you know of the devoted physician Dr. Tom Dooley who worked selflessly in South East Asia some decades ago. In one of his books he writes about treating an old priest who was punished by the Communists there for “preaching treason.” Eight nails were driven into his head: three in the front, two in the back, and three across the top. Dooley writes, “I washed the scalp, dislodged the clots, and opened the pockets to let the pus escape. I gave the priest massive doses of penicillin. The old man pulled through. One day when I went to treat him, he had disappeared. I was told that he had gone back…behind the Bamboo Curtain. This meant that he had gone back to his torturers. Here again is someone who paid the price of discipleship.
Alan Paton is the African writer. In one of his novels he has a character say, “When I go up there, which is my intention, the Big Judge will say to me, ‘Where are your wounds?’ And if I say I haven’t any, he will say, ‘Was there nothing to fight for?’ I couldn’t face that question.”
Conclusion: Dear friends; Jesus wants us to be his disciples. We want to be his disciples. There is a cost to pay. The cost is to love him even if suffering is involved. Let us pay the price! We will receive much more than we pay for!