Sunday Reflection - Discipleship

 

As Jesus sets his face towards Jerusalem he calls a man to follow him: 

And to another he said, “Follow me.” But he replied, “[Lord,] let me go first and bury my father.” But he answered him, “Let the dead bury their dead. But you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.” (Luke 9:59-60)

 

Christ's words sound callous at first glance, but surely it's the business of those whose home is the world and walk according to the flesh, who are spiritually dead, to attend to the end of their condition. The disciple on the other hand is to proclaim the Kingdom of God, life itself,  a proclamation which demands total "assent to Jesus' summons" to follow him as Lord and Savior.

Benedict XVI comments:

What is made clear to us here is that assent to Jesus' summons has priority and demands totality.  That means it takes precedence and demands the totality of our being.  One cannot simply offer a piece of oneself, a portion of one's time and one's will.  In that case one has not answered this summons that is so great that it really demands and fills a whole life, but only fills it if it is offered totally.

This also means that there is a moment of Jesus Christ which one cannot put off and calculate and say: "Yes, I want to all right, but at the moment it is still too risky for me.  At the moment I still want to do this and that."

One can miss the moment of one's life, and with prudence gamble away the real worth of one's life never again to be able to recover it.  There is the time of being called in which the decision is present, and it is more important than what we have thought out for ourselves and what is in itself quite reasonable.  The reason of Jesus and his summons have precedence: they come first.  This courage to defer what seems so reasonable to us in favor of the greater thing that he is, is decisive not only in the first moment but continually on all parts of the way.  It is only in this way that we really come close to him.

 

This courage to defer what seems so reasonable to us in favor of the greater thing that he is, is decisive not only in the first moment but continually on all parts of the way.  It is only in this way that we really come close to him. Amen to that.

May God grant us such courage,

LSP

Das Boot And The Fish

I know, some of you aren't very keen on owning boats and I don't have one. Neither did Jesus, curiously, which is why he used Peter's boat to teach the people on the shore and bring in a miraculous haul of fish from the depths of Genesseret. (Lk 5:1-11)

At the end of it all, Peter, James and John leave everything and follow Christ, who will make them "catchers of men." Perhaps you're familiar with the story, it acts as a figure of the Church and her mission.

Christ, seated in the midst of the Church preaches good news to the poor, illuminating the humble with the light of his truth. At his command the Church, undergirded with faith, it's Peter's boat, goes out into the waters of the world, lets down the net of the Gospel and the miraculous occurs. A great catch of souls is brought aboard the Ark of Salvation and taken to the shore of paradise.

Of course the Gospel also illustrates the pattern of discipleship. Christ commands, Peter obeys and glimpsing the Holy One in the miraculous, falls down, convicted of sin, "Depart from me, for I am a sinful man!" He humbles himself only to be exalted, called by Christ to be an Apostle, a catcher of men, and follows the Lord in faith, hope and above all love, leaving everything behind.

We're called to do the same. I preached on it this morning, pretty standard stuff, but here's the thing. Three or four people came up after Mass and told me they'd never heard the miracle explained this way, in terms of symbol and the broader context of the Faith. They were amazed.

What does this mean? We owe it to ourselves to at least attempt to look for the mystical, spiritual, deeper meaning inherent within scripture. This only serves to reinforce the literal meaning of the Word, giving it all the greater force and depth.

Unlike, when you think of it, Ocasio "Ten Mill" Kortez and the Green New Deal, which sounds suspiciously like Cambodia's Year Zero.

Rock of Ages,

LSP