Gospel:Lk,14: 25 – 33
Great crowds were traveling with Jesus, and he turned and addressed them, “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. Which of you wishing to construct a tower does not first sit down and calculate the cost to see if there is enough for its completion? Otherwise, after laying the foundation and finding himself unable to finish the work the onlookers should laugh at him and say, ‘This one began to build but did not have the resources to finish.’ Or what king marching into battle would not first sit down and decide whether with ten thousand troops he can successfully oppose another king advancing upon him with twenty thousand troops? But if not, while he is still far away, he will send a delegation to ask for peace terms. In the same way,
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Homily
The Words of Sparrow’s calypso, ‘Little children go to school and learn well, otherwise in life you will ketch real hell’ has been hailed as a masterpiece because it touches a deep chord within the hearts of most parents in Trinidad and Tobago. As a people we glorify academia and we see success in life primarily in terms of education which gives access to status, power and money. For most Trinidadians and Tobagonians therefore, education is high on our list of priorities because without education success in life is impossible.
For the people of the time of Jesus, their list of priorities for achieving success in life was very different. For them success in life without maintaining very strong family ties was practically impossible. A person therefore who deliberately cut ties with the family and the social network arising from the family would lose the ordinary means of making a living. This would be an economic cross that such a person would chose to carry by his/her actions. When Jesus therefore tells the crowd; “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.”, he is making a completely countercultural statement and if one answered Jesus’ invitation to discipleship that person was effectively giving up all his/her possessions and would have to carefully consider whether or not he/she was able to make such a commitment. “Which of you wishing to construct a tower does not first sit down and calculate the cost to see if there is enough for its completion? Otherwise, after laying the foundation and finding himself unable to finish the work the onlookers should laugh at him and say, ‘This one began to build but did not have the resources to finish.”
For many of us this is in fact what we lived. Before there were tertiary level educational institutions in T&T, those who wished to acquire a profession had to give up family and friends and go to other countries without any security that one would have the resources, financial, emotional and otherwise to achieve the goal. It was in fact a giving up of everything to follow the promise of success in life that the profession offered. We did this because of earthly ambition and to achieve a perishable goal. You and I however are disciples of Jesus, our homeland is in heaven and the Gospel for this weekend invites us to reflect on the priorities which we have or have not set in order to achieve success in the life to come, the life of which this earthly life is only a forerunner or preparation. We are reminded that in the same way that we were able to see the comfort of family and friends as an obstacle to our plans for life and put them aside, thus accepting the loneliness of life without them, in order to attain an earthly profession, so too we must be able to put aside whatever is an obstacle to the following of Jesus, accepting the loneliness which often comes from principled stances in order to be faithful to the values of Jesus. This is the giving up of everything, if needs be, in fidelity to what God asks. This was in fact how Jesus lived. He gave up everything in fidelity to his father. This is what St. Francis lived when he divested himself in the public square of everything he had received from his father in order to follow “Lady Poverty” as God had asked him to do. This is what Mons. Romero did when he accepted the loneliness of being estranged from his brother bishops because of his principled stance against injustice. This is the example that you and I are now called to follow and to give in our turn. We thank God for these examples. They tell us that as difficult as it may be, it can be done and that fills me with hope.
Prayer
All powerful and ever-loving God, the following of your son Jesus has never been easy but many of us have given up family and friends to attain an earthly reward. Give us the same constancy in the following of Jesus so that we may find success not only in this life but also in the life to come. We ask this through the intercession of Jesus who calls us to follow Hum and Mary our Mother. Amen
