September 5, 2010
Twenty-third Sunday of the Year
Wisdom 9:13-18; Philemon 9b, 12-17; Luke 14:25-33
Jesus enjoyed great popularity. Great crowds followed Him. They followed Him because He impressed them with His words, and mighty deeds. It was at the height of this popularity and fanfare Jesus now made an unpopular demand on His followers. It seems, He was not as much impressed with the crowds as the crowds were with Him. The demands were so uncompromising and obviously difficult. Indeed, Jesus risked his popularity by making such great demands on His disciples.
The Triple demands: You want to be a disciple of Jesus? Here are the requirements: 1) Renounce your relationships, 2) Renounce your comforts, and 3) Renounce your possessions.
A paradoxical command: Anyone who listens to this teaching of Jesus would ask, if becoming a Christian, a disciple of Jesus implies renouncing (“hating”) one’s parents, children, wife, husband, relatives and friends, who can follow this teaching? Have we not learned from early on in our catechism the commandment of God that we shall love, respect and care for our parents? Has not Jesus also taught us that we need to love our brothers and sisters as we love ourselves? How does Jesus make sense, then in His call to renounce all our intimate relationships for us to be his disciples?
Indeed, this teaching of Jesus is paradoxical in nature. Renunciation is not to make us desolate, orphans and miserable. This is “losing in order to gain” and “letting go in order to be complete”. These triple renunciations will make us what we all look for in our relationships, comforts and possessions: happy, whole and contented.
Center and the peripheries: The triple demands of discipleship is all about positioning: position God at the center and everything else at the periphery of my life. Remember, what Jesus said, when He was asked which is the most important commandment in the law— 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.’ Indeed, love of God is the center of all commandments. Everything else is to be positioned at the periphery compared to the Love of God. It is the love of God that gives meaning and purpose for the love of neighbor and the love of self. I love others first and foremost because I love God. How beautiful our world would be when the Love of God is the center of all our relationships, pleasures, pursuits and possessions!
God— the center of all relationships:
The call to renounce (hate) all human relationships then, is a call to deepen our relationships in love. It is a call to make God the center of all my relationships. When God is the center of relationships, all relationships are sacred and holy. There is a tendency for human relationships to grow so exclusive that there is no room for God, so intimate and private that there is no space even for God. It is this tendency that we need to give up, hate and renounce. Instead, allow God to be the center of your family, and every relationship you cherish in your heart. Seek His will for you, consult Him, and share your joys and sorrows, victories and failures, strength and weaknesses… This is a call to transformation, to see God in every person whom you love. St Paul understood and lived this transformation of relationship in a radical way when he said, “Now I live, yet not I, but Christ lives in me” (Gal 2: 20). Blessed Mother Teresa of Calcutta, whose feast falls this day, verbalized this centrality of God in relationship, when she was asked, how is it that she is able to care for the neglected, abandoned, disfigured, and the dying people with immense love, she said: “I see Jesus in them. It is not a burden but a privilege to serve the Lord in the poor. In their cries I hear the cry of Jesus and in their smiles I see the smile of Jesus. I feel happy doing something beautiful for the Lord”.
God—the Center of my comforts:
Renunciation of comforts, if not for the grace of God, does not have any value in itself. Yet, all comforts and pleasures are sacred when God is the center of my comforts. When I allow God to be the center of my comforts and happiness, I realize another paradox of life: Cross is grace! Taking up my daily crosses no more becomes a burden for me, rather a source of joy, when done in love for the Lord. Cross becomes heavier, unbearable and miserable when I carry them on “my way”. Carry the cross, following the footsteps of Jesus. Jesus will refresh you. Cross is sharing burden. My cross is a source of grace for others. This is what self-less love, service and care all about. Because, in you I see my God whom I love more than my life itself, I give up my comforts that you may be comforted. Love without sacrifice is not true love. Sacrifices without love are not true sacrifices.
All the pleasures and comforts this world gives is legitimate and worth enjoying if God is the center of those pleasures.
God—the Center of my possessions:
Material blessings, riches and possessions may become a hindrance in my way of discipleship if I consider them above my faith, morality and Christian commitment. I might lose sight of my true calling to be a child of God if I do not make God the center of all my possessions. When God is the center of my riches and blessings, I become a liberated person, with an attitude of gratitude and love.
The story of Onesimus which we heard in the second reading gives us a fitting example of Christian attitude towards possessions. Onesimus was a slave, a property of Philemon, a Christian convert. Onesimus ran away from Philemon and came to St Paul who baptized him. Paul was now put under house arrest in Rome, and Onesimus offered to serve him. But Paul decided to send him back to Philemon with an appeal that Onesimus, by virtue of his baptism has become the spiritual son of Paul. He sends Onesimus with great feeling of love. He is no more a slave now. Accept him as a brother. For everyone who believes in Christ is His family and we are brothers to each other. Do not treat him as a slave any more. Onesimus, who was the property of Philemon is now shown to be a means of grace for his once master. By giving up the right of ownership Philemon is not losing the service of Onesimus, but he serves him all the more, with love, and Philemon, is called upon to serve him in return, in love. This change of attitude has come about because of Christ, and our call to be disciples of Christ.
Let us ask the Lord Jesus to set us free, make us whole and fill us with contentment, satisfaction and joy in our relationships, comforts and possessions. Let us also promise to the Lord, as we lay the cross of our life in this Eucharistic offering, that we will make Him the center of our relationships, comforts and possessions.
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