Twentieth third Sunday in Ordinary Time When we started discussing the work on our parish church a couple of years ago at the Parish Pastoral Council and the Finance Committee, there was general agreement that it would be good to upgrade the light fittings and paint the church. However, it was strongly felt that we should not begin the work until we had the bulk of the money to pay for it. So, we began raising money with our first fund raising concert in December 2011. Little by little the money came in, thanks to your support of fund raising initiatives and generous individual contributions from many parishioners. By the time we sanctioned the work early this year, we knew we would have the bulk of the money before the work began. Once the work began, we knew we could afford to finish it. I was reminded of that experience by the two parables Jesus speaks in the gospel reading this morning. Someone intending to build a tower starts on the work and then discovers he cannot finish the work, probably because he underestimated the cost. In contrast a king who is planning a war against his enemy realizes that he won’t be able to achieve the victory he wants and, so, instead of starting a war, he works for peace. One man, the king, thought through what he intended to do before starting down the road, the other, the tower builder, did not think it through. Whenever we plan some big undertaking, whether as individuals or as communities, we need to sit down, preferably with others, and plan it carefully. We need to be reflective about what we are setting out to do, and the bigger the task, the more reflective we need to be. Sometimes too much thinking can be the enemy of action. We can procrastinate for too long and the moment passes. Yet, good reflection is often the prelude to good action. In speaking those two parables, Jesus seems to be saying that becoming his follower requires a certain amount of reflection and deliberation on our part. It is a much more serious matter than painting a church, or building a tower. Becoming a disciple of Jesus is not just taking an action of some kind, even an action of great moment and consequence. It is more a case of taking on a certain mindset which affects all of our actions, everything we do in life. Becoming a Christian is not one action among many. It is a decision about the kind of person we want to be. It is as if Jesus is reminding the crowds who are accompanying him, and reminding us, just what a momentous decision it is to become his disciple and what it involves. He goes so far as to say at the beginning of the gospel reading that it involves ‘hating his father, mother...’. These are very strange words to our ears. We would not normally accept them from anybody, never mind from one who elsewhere calls on us to love our enemies. In the idiom of the language Jesus spoke, to hate in this kind of context means simply ‘to love less’. Jesus is calling on people to love him with an even greater love than the natural affection we would show our parents, our children and our siblings. Jesus is calling on those who would follow him to love him with an even stronger love than the most cherished of human loves. In a way, he is taking the first commandment of the Jewish Scriptures, to love God with all our heart, soul, strength and mind and applying that love to himself. He is calling for a love that is due to God alone. Having raised the bar in this way, he keeps it there, declaring that those who follow him must be ready to travel the way of the cross for his sake. To love in the way he calls for involves a real dying to self. At the end of this morning’s gospel reading he further declares that such a love for him requires holding our possessions lightly, not becoming overly attached to them or enmeshed in them. This is the challenging call that Jesus puts before us in the gospel reading this morning. That is why he insists that we need to be reflective and deliberate about our following of him. It won’t just happen automatically; it is not something we can drift into. It is something we have to keep working at. Yet, we do not work at it alone. In the words of the first reading we are given the Holy Spirit from on high. In the words of this morning’s responsorial psalm, we need to keep praying, ‘in the morning, fill us with your love’, fill us with your Spirit. Jesus assures us that this is a prayer that will not go unanswered by God. Today’s gospel reading is taken from Luke’s gospel. A few chapters earlier in that gospel Jesus says, ‘if you know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him’. The Lord will give us all the resources we need to be faithful to our decision to be his disciple.
Posted on: Sun, 08 Sep 2013 07:51:55 +0000