Thirteenth
Sunday in OT C 2019
The great
journey begins. ‘Jesus resolutely
determined to journey to Jerusalem.
Jesus has already set Jerusalem as the heart of the Gospel story. In going to Jerusalem, Jesus was walking the
road to his death and resurrection.
Jesus knew full well that in going to Jerusalem, he was opening himself
up to the plan of His heavenly Father.
Those who
journey with Jesus in every generation must make Jerusalem their goal. For us to journey to Jerusalem is no simple
travelogue but a vocation to discipleship and mission that will indeed take the
rest of our lives. I have had the privilege of visiting the Holy Land a couple
of times. These have been most
memorable and very inspiring for me. But
the Gospel imperative is even more than that.
For you and I to set our faces toward Jerusalem is the surrender we must
make when we choose to follow God’s call in our lives – wherever that may lead
us. In other words, the Gospel invites
us to reflect on the cost of discipleship.
To be
honest, many of us, myself included, have a way of bargaining with God over the
terms of our discipleship. At various
times, we give the Lord different responses to the Lord’s call to be a
disciple. Sometimes our actions suggest
we are saying: “No thanks.” Sometimes our response is: “Maybe later.” Hopefully our response at other times is: “Be
it done to me according to your Word.” – the response of Mary at the
Annunciation.
But well
before we examine our own whole or half-hearted response to Jesus’ invitation
to discipleship, he sets us straight on how we are to judge others’ response to
God’s call. Jesus frankly says: “It is none of your business.” Jesus demands we not judge how others
respond. From the Gospel account, Jesus
sent his messengers ahead of him. On the
way they entered a Samaritan village to prepare for his reception there, but
they would not welcome him because the destination of his journey was
Jerusalem. When the disciples James and
John saw this,
they asked, “Lord, do you want us to call down fire from heaven to consume
them?” Jesus turned and rebuked them and
they journeyed to another village. Jesus is
saying to James and John: “It’s none of
your business how others respond.”
Jesus’
decisive command to James and John that they express commitment to him through
compassion for others. St. Paul writes that we must abandon the
violence of biting and devouring one another, choosing instead to serve one
another through love.
You and I
need to do an inventory of the judgments, the gossip, the stereotyping, and
the negativity we have toward all those who get under our skin. The message of Jesus is very clear: Let go of your judgments about others;
rather make the commitment to serve one another with love.
Our focus needs
to be on ourselves. How do we respond to
our call to discipleship of the Lord Jesus?
Our Gospel question of the week was and is: What stands in the way of you following Jesus
more completely? This is such an
important question because from the Gospel perspective we must be “all in” our
discipleship of Jesus.
True
discipleship is a full-time job. We can’t be disciples at certain times but not
at others. It’s not like a project we
can set aside and resume later.
To be a
disciple of Jesus to live as Jesus, to love as Jesus, and to forgive as Jesus
forgives us. The heart of Jesus is
filled with love and because the heart of Jesus was filled with the love of His
heavenly Father. Jesus loved everyone because he saw the Father’s love in each
and every person.
The lens
Jesus used was the lens of love and he saw love in every person on the face of
the earth.
There is
such an important truth to be learned by the disciples of Jesus. The world is as your heart sees it, not just
as it is out there. What do I mean by
that? When we look at life through the
lens of love, we see God’s love in all of life.
What my life
gets overwhelmed by fear, by anxiety, when I have trouble forgiving someone,
when I get too stuck on myself, when my ministry seems like I’m
What does it
mean to be “all in” in our discipleship of Jesus?
To be a
disciple of Jesus means discovering the way of love. Disciples must learn how to love. To be a disciple you must forgive one and
all. There can be no exceptions. If you’re going to be a disciple of Jesus,
you must be detached from everything but one thing and that is Jesus Himself.
How is it
for you when your family isn’t all you want it to be; how is it when your job
situation isn’t what you would like; how is it when the Church we live in and
the world we are part of is all mixed up?
The world is as your heart sees it, not so
much as it is out there. If your heart is
filled with the love of your heavenly Father, what you see will be filled with
love. I believe in the basic truth that
we see life through the lens of our heart.
When our hearts are filled with the love of Jesus, we will see in the people of our lives the
love that is in our hearts. Jesus’
heart was filled with love for all people because he saw the love of God in all
people.
Who in your
life do you find most difficult to reach out to and love? Perhaps it is the person who has hurt you
deeply -- even a family member; or person whose views on
life are completely different than yours. The discipleship question for all of us is
can we love as Jesus loves? Can we
forgive as Jesus forgives us?
As
we transition to the Liturgy of the Eucharist, as we prepare to receive Communion, we testify to the reality of
our Catholic faith. We are being
nourished with the life and the love of Jesus.
This is a profound act of discipleship.
Have a Blessed Day.
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