My homily for the 13th Sunday in Ordinary Time Luke 9, 51-62 A famous Jewish rabbi once said, “If we follow an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth, we would all end up being blind and toothless.” Revenge seems to be all in the mind of the disciples James and John as they were also known as the “Sons of Thunder”. They were known as such perhaps because of their incendiary comments when Jesus and his disciples weren’t allowed to pass Samaria on their way to Jerusalem. So what’s with the Samaritans and the Jews, why do they seem to want to get each others throats? The split came about when the Jews of Samaria decided to inter-marry with pagans and since then the “full-blooded” Jews looked down on Samaritans and the rift became more pronounced when the Jews in Jerusalem refused the help offered by the Samaritans to restore the Temple in Jerusalem and instead the Samaritans made their own temple on the foot of Mt. Gerizim. That’s why when Jesus and the disciples for forbidden passage through Samaria on their way to Jerusalem, James and John suggested that they wanted to call the fire from heaven in order to incinerate Samaria, Jesus rebuked these two and instead went off to another town. For us, it seems that revenge is the natural reaction when somebody offends us. And until now, there are still societies that insist that when a life is taken then another life must take its place. However, Jesus insists that this should not be the way. Violence cannot be repaid by more violence otherwise we would all end up annihilating each other. For Jesus, he would rather walk in the way of peace and humility rather than arrogance and violence. For us, are we willing to walk this path of humility and peace instead of arrogance and violence? Or would we also end up being blind and toothless? There is a story in the book of Elizabeth Brenner, entitled Winning by Letting Go. Brenner explains how people in India catch monkeys — and catch them alive. They cut a small hole in a box. Then they put a tasty nut in the box. The hole is just large enough for the monkey to put its hand through. But it’s too small for the monkey to withdraw its hand once it has clutched the nut inside. So the monkey has two choices. It can let go of the nut and go free, or it can hold on to the nut and stay trapped. Monkeys usually hold on to the nut. The monkey is a good image of us (not physically, of course, but spiritually), and the nut represents things, vices, and people, which we cannot let go of. Consequently, we are not free. We’re trapped. (story c/o Fr. Bel San Luis, SVD “Word Alive” Manila Bulletin 29 June 2013) In the second part of the gospel for today, there are three people who presented to become followers of Jesus. However, sadly the three people have some “issues”. The first was given a warning by Jesus when he said that the “Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.” It means that if we decide to follow Jesus intently we would never know where the journey would lead us. In my experience, when I entered the seminary in Manila, never would I have known that I would end up in Wellington, New Zealand and who knows what’s next. We are all missionaries and we decide to follow Christ, even if we won’t physically leave our homeland but our spiritual journey could bring us to places where we do not know but if we say yes, rest assured that we would be satisfied in Christ. The second is about a person who wants to follow Christ, but he asks that he should bury his father first before following Jesus. Jesus just replied, “Let the dead bury their dead. But you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.” In my experience as a priest, I have buried a lot of parishioners here in St. Patrick’s in my five years here but at the same time I have also lost two cousins and a close auntie of mine in my first three years here in New Zealand before I was able to go back for my home holiday. And just a few months ago, I also lost another aunt and the mother-in-law of my brother. And for all of those, I wasn’t able to participate in their burial except of course for a phone call to express my sorrow. Ever since entering the seminary and deciding to become a priest, I know that this is inevitable that’s why this passage becomes more meaningful to me as a missionary priest. The third is about saying goodbye to one’s family before following Jesus. At least for me, I was able to say goodbye to my parents before I went to Sydney more than five years ago and also say goodbye again to them when they left Wellington more than two years ago when they visited me here in New Zealand. In this Jesus is just saying that once we have decided to follow him, we should leave everything behind and there’s no turning back. Following Jesus is very difficult and yet he himself shows us the way. We just need to follow him closely and if ever we tend to fail or stumble along the way, we shouldn’t be ashamed to raise our hand and let him carry us and move on.
Posted on: Sat, 29 Jun 2013 03:08:09 +0000
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