REFLECTION ON THE 23RD SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME, YEAR C
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. (Luke 14: 25-26, NAB)
When we read these words, we might think initially that Jesus is just plain sadistic if not out and out crazy. Who goes around telling people that they must hate their families, hate their own children, if they are to be a disciple of Jesus? Is this the same Jesus in another Gospel who says to let the little children come to me and don’t hinder them? Is this the same Jesus in this very Gospel who tells the parable of the Prodigal Son? How do many of the sentiments that Jesus speaks elsewhere make sense with what he is saying today?
Context is everything, hence, the danger of taking any words out of context. Jesus is speaking metaphorically, not literally, of course. What Jesus is driving home to his audience is to what level of commitment they are prepared to make in order to be his disciple. He is asking them if they are prepared to abandon everything in order to follow him. Discipleship is not just a whim, Jesus says, it is an utter change in one’s life. It truly is an “all or nothing” commitment.
As human beings, we often sum up who a person is by what she/he owns. Look at the amount of prestige that is attached to people who own the finest cars, the most luxurious homes, who eat at the finest restaurants, and travel to exotic places. Our newspapers, our magazines are filled with stories about “those people” who have all these things. Jesus would look at all that opulence, all that wealth, and declare it a great burden to carry in life. All the “stuff” that we own does not ease our lives, but rather burdens our lives for the simple reason we have to “take care” of that stuff. We have to mind that stuff, and protect our stuff, store that stuff, provide for that stuff in order to keep it. “The stuff” of our lives does not free us, rather, it weighs us down and prevents us from having the freedom needed to follow him as his disciple.
Anyone who has any moral fiber would readily attest that people and relationships are not commodities to be owned or controlled. Only perpetrators of domestic violence, slave owners, and the like would consider people, including their own families, as commodities, things to be used and abused. However, most of us place a very high value on our attachment to our families. They are important. What wouldn’t we do to alleviate the suffering of one of our children? We would do everything we could, right? To be a disciple of Jesus, Jesus is asking us for a level of commitment that is even higher than our commitment to our family. If we are truly committed to be a disciple of Jesus, we must be ready for a commitment greater than we hold to our parents, our spouse, and our children. There is a story about Francis of Assisi that illustrates this very well.
Francis came from a very wealthy family. His father was a successful merchant of the finest clothes. He was very disappointed when Francis showed no interest in running the family merchant business. His son, Francis, had become this religious nut, trying to rebuild an abandon ruin of a chapel in the middle of no where, begging for food, becoming, what many of us would consider, a bum, a ne’er do well . On top of it, Francis was taking his father’s clothing merchandise and selling it so that he could give the proceeds of the sales to the poor.
His father had had enough and decided to confront his son in public in the middle of Assisi. In a very crowded square, Francis’ father confronted him, cursed him, and disowned him. In front of his father and the whole citizenry, Francis strips off all his clothing and stands naked and declares that he had only one father, and that was God the Father. Francis then put on the clothes of a beggar and began to live a life of Gospel poverty.
A major part of Francis’ rule of life was to not own anything. He reasoned that if he didn’t own anything, there was nothing he had that thieves would want. He didn’t have to protect anything he didn’t own. He did not have to take care of property he didn’t have. Not owning anything, he had complete freedom to follow Jesus and to live a life devoted to the Gospel. As this way of life grew and others joined him, he made it clear that his religious order would NOT own property. They rented the place in which they lived for a bushel of fish a year. They went door to door begging for food, or ate the discarded food in the garbage. They begged for money to support their ministry.
Francis and his new religious order accomplished much in those early years, and the order grew in number. Francis may not have owned any material things, but he did own one thing, his religious order. Toward the end of his life, he was asked to give up this one last possession, the control he had over this religious order. His religious order had become “his family”. He was asked to let go of his control, to let his family go. This was very difficult for him to do. Francis placed God first. Francis placed his discipleship to Jesus first, and let go of his religious order.
This is the level of commitment to discipleship that Jesus is calling on us to make today. Are we prepared to make the sacrifice of letting go of everything in order to follow him? Are we prepared to take up our cross and follow Jesus? If we are not, we are not ready to be disciples of Jesus.
