TWENTY THIRD SUNDAY

1.       Unless you hate father, mother... these seem rather harsh words from Jesus who had compassion on the crowds, - as we hear so often in the Gospels. As a result we tend to tone down the “hate” to if you love God less than mother and Father. But that is so weak. It is a far cry from Jesus who said to his parents after the loss in the Temple, “Did you not know that I must be about my Father’s business?” Many of these “rough sayings” of Jesus we have to treasure in our hearts like Mary did and gradually  the full impact of Jesus’ invitation will come through to us.

Visiting a parish, I once preached on this text and said Jesus will not permit us to sit on the fence in the matter of following him. We cannot wait and see which way the wind blows. When it comes to following him and there is a choice between following God or caring for father, mother, brothers, God must always come first.

The assistant parish priest was very upset with me when I said that. It is all right for you to say that. You have so many brothers to care for your parents. I am the only son, my dad is dead and my mother is ill. Do you expect me to abandon her?

I sympathized with him. I wish I had an easy, “Dear Abby” answer. I said to him, “Father I do not have an answer. I wish I did. But we priests have it easy. Our congregations are so generous and sympathetic that they easily allow us time off to care for our loved ones.” But we hardly stop to think of married couples or even single people. A husband or wife has more than one object to juggle. It is the care for the spouse, the children, the job and their ailing parents. We often think that following Christ is a priest thing or a religious thing. NO it is for all Christians.

And did you stop to think - when I left home, it was harder for my mother than for me. I was going to a new life, new adventure. For my mother it was loosing a son in a way.  There is always pride in a mother, when a son becomes a priest. The pain a mother feels when a son leaves is difficult to imagine.

2.       The invitation of Jesus to follow him. The invitation of Jesus to work for the Kingdom makes us look at our comfort zone and decide whether we are willing to pay the price for following him.

  the love of family, friends, our way of life

  are we willing to carry our Cross - even Daily as Luke 9:23 says it.

  are we willing to give up all our possessions.

Most of our problems come in the area of our imagination, in the area of “what if”. The invitation Jesus gives us is are we willing to follow God at all costs, then we cannot hae other false gods, other little gods. It may be possessions, our comfortable life, our family. The reality is that if we really love God and are willing to pay the price, we find that the Kingdom of God is shown precisely in loving, respect, and giving honour to our parents in the spirit of the Fourth Commandment.

It challenges us, as the first reading tells us, to call on the spirit of God who is all wise. It calls us to ask for the grace of the spirit of discernment to choose wisely. The first reading is attributed to King Solomon. He shows us that when we make the right choice, we do get everything. Solomon was given the choice of anything he wanted. He did not choose

 Wealth in Gold, silver and the cedars of Lebanon.

 Victory over all his enemies and those who opposed him.

But he chose the gift of Wisdom. He chose God and the Will of God. In doing so he also received Wealth and Victory.

3.         Sometimes the choices are tough. In the second reading, Paul invites Philemon to accept his runaway slave, Onesimus. The significance of the names is important. Philemon has its roots in Philos = Love (as in case of Philadelphia) and Onesimus has the same root as onerous, or something burdensome. Love accepts something burdensome and it becomes a source of Grace. We are reminded of Fr. Flanagan and BoysTown. “He isn’t heavy, he’s my brother.” When we do something for the Love ogf God, it does not prove to be as difficult as we imagine.

And so in the choice of the way of God - like Solomon did, like Philemon did, we find an inner peace, a priceless freedom, the ability to fly like an eagle. Unfortunately we something prefer the gold bars of a cage. We prefer our possessions, our comfortable life, our family. Then we have to be content to sit on a perch in a cage and be a source of entertainment for others, rather than enjoy and live the freedom of the Children of God.

4.         I’d like to end with an episode of the Games Shows we have on TV. Three persons are given a cart and told they can have whatever they pile up in three minutes. We have seen it often enough. One runs to the Media section and piles in a couple of TVS, VCRs, a whole box of the latest CDS, a dozen or so digital cameras as the crowd cheers on. The second goes to the perfume section - each bottle at $90 - there is a box of 20 or 30 piled in, the most expensive clothes on the rack - and again the cheers from the crowd. They give instructions on what to get. The third contestant walks quietly down the aisle and picks a bottle of milk, a loaf of bread and a box of margarine and the crowd is horrified. The crowd cheer the first two on. The MC inquires of the third, why just three articles when you could have piled your cart up with expensive items. Oh said the third, “I only picked what I needed. I can always go back for more, my dad owns the store.”

And that is what Jesus is trying to tell us that when we chose God, we always get what we need: Mothers, Fathers, brothers and sisters - a 100 fold in this life and more in the life to come. And so we pray, “Give us this day our daily bread”.  As the beautiful spiritual goes,

Lord for tomorrow and its needs, I do not pray.

Grant me O Lord what I need, just for today.