Word to the Wise
Sunday, September 8, 2013 - 23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time - C
[Wis 9:13-18b; Phlm 9-10, 12-17; Luke 14:25-33]If anyone comes to me without hating his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple......In the same way, anyone of you who does not renounce all his possessions cannot be my disciple.
Do these statements of Jesus seem extreme to us? Are we being asked to become "fanatic Christians?" Why should we choose suffering and destitution and life without family and friends if we want to be a disciple of Jesus? The basic reason is that the community of Luke was already undergoing persecution and people were losing family, property and their very lives because they were disciples of Jesus! So, if someone wanted to become a disciple, they had to be ready to "give up" all those things. That is the point of the "readiness" images about construction and battle. Don't start either one if you're not ready to "pay the cost" that may be required!
I recommend reading Dietrich Bonhoeffer's modern classic, THE COST OF DISCIPLESHIP. Bonhoeffer was a Lutheran pastor/theologian in Nazi Germany who was executed by the Nazis. In this wonderful work, he warns about "cheap grace" which characterizes a Christian belief that requires very little of the believer. I think we Catholics experience this danger when we settle for a faith that is essentially private and individual and limited to minimal sacramental participation. We may seek to eliminate the cross from our lives and consign it strictly to what happened to Jesus 2000 years ago! We don't live in danger of losing family, friends, property and life for our faith here in this country, but some of our brothers and sisters in Iraq, Iran and Syria are undergoing this very suffering right now! Jesus warns us that discipleship may require what is happening to them, and it could happen to us as well. What are we ready to accept as the "cost of discipleship?" AMEN