Word to the Wise
Monday, June 28, 2021 - Monday in the 13th Week in Ordinary Time
[Gen 18:16-33 and Matt 8:18-22]A scribe approached and said to [Jesus], "Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go." Jesus answered him, "Foxes have dens and birds of the sky have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to rest his head." Another of his disciples said to him, "Lord, let me go first and bury my father." But Jesus answered him, "Follow me, and let the dead bury their dead." [Matthew]
JUNE 28 ST. IRENAUS, bishop and martyr
I know from personal and pastoral experience just how demanding Jesus' reply to the scribe and disciple could be. The"call" in my undergrad years to enter religious life interrupted some cherished plans to go to law school. Even a year of the latter did not change that call. I had to go. On the pastoral level, I could only wince when I hear the latest excuse of an athletic or social event that "prevented" a person or family from attending Mass on the weekend.
If we are honest, most of us - perhaps none of us - is the perfect disciple. We can always find a convenient excuse to avoid the total commitment that Jesus seems to demand of us. Leaving the boats and nets or the tax collector's table is just not possible, Jesus! But, that misses the point. Discipleship may not mean leaving our job. It might mean being a Christian in that job when faith and values come into conflict with employment demands.
In his classic work, THE COST OF DISCIPLESHIP, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a Lutheran pastor executed by the Nazis near the end of World War II, warns about "cheap grace." Jesus calls us to new life in discipleship. Anything less is death, which is what he means when he says, "Let the dead bury the dead." As limited as we can be as human beings, Jesus summons us to full-time, not part-time discipleship. AMEN