Homily Ordinary Sunday 23 C 2016 - Following Christ Goes Beyond Fuzzy Feelings

Homily for 23rd Sunday of Ordinary Time Year C 2016

Wisdom 9:13-18; Philemon 9b,12-17; Luke 14:25-33

Introduction

In today’s gospel, Jesus has two distinct but related lessons for his followers.

First, Jesus wants us to know that following him is difficult; it involves sacrifice and suffering, giving up family and property and carrying our crosses.

The second lesson is that following Jesus requires a conscious choice and deliberate effort.  Let us explore this second lesson a little more.

Scripture and Theology

To explain that following him must go beyond fuzzy feelings, Jesus gives two ordinary life examples where calculation and preparation is of utmost importance.

·        The builder of a tower, for example, must calculate the cost of the whole project, before he starts working on it. Otherwise half-away through the construction, he might run out of money and have a half-finished building.

·        The king going to war also must first assess his chances of victory.  If, for example, he has fewer men than his opponent, he might consider negotiating a peace-deal, since war in this case would be futile.

With these examples, Jesus is teaching that Christians, like the builder and the king, must be intentional and deliberate in choosing to follow him.

·        Take the majority of us, who were baptized as babies; we cannot take our Christian faith for granted.  What if our parents were Jewish, or Muslim or Jehovah’s witnesses?  Would we be followers of Jesus?  That is why we cradle Catholics at some point in our adult life, must also make a conscious choice to believe, worship and live as Jesus teaches.

·        Those who come to the faith as adults, clearly make a conscious choice.  But even they have to ask why they are becoming Catholic.  It cannot simply be because of an emotional excitement that comes from attending a retreat or a pilgrimage or hearing a touching homily.  Such excitement must mature through sweat and suffering, through reason and conviction, through deliberation and effort to be a faithful Christian.

Whether we are cradle Catholics or adult converts, our faith in Jesus must be more than following a whim; it is a lifelong project, a total commitment to Jesus.

In the musical Fiddler on the Roof, Tevye the husband, probably sad that his daughters are leaving him to get married, asks his wife Golde: “Do you love me?”  She is surprised and exasperated by the question and brushes him off.  But he insists and keeps asking: “do you love me?”  She attempts to respond:

For twenty-five years I've washed your clothes,

Cooked your meals, cleaned your house,

Given you children, milked the cow,

After twenty-five years, why talk about love right now?"

But he is not satisfied.  After going back and forth, finally she asks herself:

"Do I love him? For twenty-five years I've lived with him, fought with him, starved with him... If that's not love, what is?"

The words of Golde teach us that we cannot really love another person only by feelings or even words; true love involves giving oneself completely.  If we say we love Jesus, he wants that love to be demonstrated in the everyday decisions we make, to consciously choose to love him and love our neighbour.

Our love for Jesus could be compared to having a million dollars that you want to give to your spouse or children.  Rather than write them one big check, Jesus is suggesting that we give out this money daily, perhaps 1 or 10 or 20 or 50 dollars each day, thus stretching out that love and making it count each day.

Christian Life

In other words, Christianity is not a joke, it is not child’s play, it is not even a leisure activity to be indulged in for one hour on Sunday.  It is a program of a lifetime, a program of becoming saints.

This Sunday the Catholic Church canonizes Mother Teresa of Calcutta.  In doing so the Church is proposing her as a model of how to follow Jesus.

Mother Teresa is clearly a good example of the first lesson of Jesus in today's gospel, that which requires Christians to carry their crosses.  Her whole life was giving up family and property, and giving herself to the poor and needy.

But Mother Teresa is also an example of the second lesson that Jesus teaches, that which requires Christians to consciously choose to follow him.

• Baptized as a baby in 1910 in Albania, from the age of 12 to 18, young Teresa struggled with the decision of whether or not to become a nun.
• After joining the Loretto sisters, for twenty years she faithfully served as a missionary teacher and school principal in India, alleviating the poverty and ignorance of her students through education.
•  But ever the conscious follower of Jesus, from 1946 for two years Mother Teresa discerned the call to leave teaching and instead go to care for the physical needs of the poor, especially in the slums and streets of Calcutta.
• Her discernment would blossom into the religious congregation of the Missionaries of Charity with their white and blue saris.  For fifty years, until her death in 1997, Mother Teresa lived out her calling by caring for the poor and needy, in India and throughout the world, including this country.
• And yet even as she was doing all this great work, earning a Nobel peace prize in 1979, Mother Teresa daily struggled with her faith.  Thankfully she took it seriously enough to seek the Lord's guidance in prayer and spiritual direction.  Until her death, she consciously chose to follow the Lord.

Conclusion

Like Mother Teresa, you and I are also called to become saints, and like her we must do so by finding out what our specific path to sainthood is.

A story is told of a young lady, an artist and actress who lived in New York City.  Although she herself came from a rather difficult background, she was obsessed with Mother Teresa and what Mother did.  For this young lady, Mother Theresa was the height of what every human being should be and she wanted to be like her and with her.  In 1985, she found out that Mother Teresa was coming to New York to speak at the United Nations. Searching high and low, she found out where Mother was staying and went to the hotel to see her.

And as she was at the gate of the hotel, Mother’s car pulled up and all these little nuns came out and then finally Mother Teresa herself.  This young lady ran up to Mother and said: “I am so glad to meet you; all the work you do is so wonderful.”  Mother Teresa used to all this kind of attention was gracious and took her hand and listened to her.  The girl went on: “The work you do is so wonderful that I want to come to Calcutta and do that work with you.”

But Mother Teresa shook her head and said, “No. You don’t do this work because you think it is wonderful. You do this work because you so love the poor people of Calcutta that you cannot be away from them; that is when you come.”  The young woman was a little disappointed but she understood.

Then Mother Teresa asked her: “But what do you do?”  She replied, “Well what I do is not important.  I work in a theatre and help put on plays.  What use is that?”

Mother Theresa said to her: “There are so many different kinds of famine in this world.  In my country of India, there is a famine of the body; in this country of America, there is a famine of the spirit.  Stay here and feed your people.”

You and I must also ask ourselves:  "And I am consciously finding out how Jesus wants me to follow him and then daily choosing that specific path to sainthood?"