23rd Sunday - Place Jesus Above Everything

 

“What does God want me to do with my life?” is a question young people have before they go to college. Later in life, when we are at crossroad we can also ask the same question. The main answer to the question is actually simple. The Baltimore Catechism states, “We are to know God, to love God, and to serve Him in this world, and to be

happy with Him forever in heaven.”

We know we are to serve God by serving our family, helping those in the community, working at a specific kind of job we believe God wants us to do. If we are young it means what sports or activities does God want me to do? We should ask the Lord and then trust He will give an answer. To do God’s will also means to avoid sin and to live a life of virtue. Jesus said, “If you love me, keep my commandments.”

But, how else can we know what God wants me to do?

“Who can know God’s counsel or who can conceive what the Lord intends?” asks the first reading from Wisdom. The reading concludes that God sent wisdom and “thus were the paths of those on earth made straight.” That wisdom sent by God is Jesus. Jesus is the Wisdom of God, the Revelation of God. So now when we want to know God’s counsel or conceive what the Lord intends is to listen to the words of Jesus. God has not left us in the dark. When we have to discern, we have the Wisdom of God in Jesus to guide us.

We see that Wisdom of God as Jesus gives three pieces of advice in the Gospel on what it means to be his disciple. The first advice for a would-be disciple of Jesus is to place Jesus first always, above everything, even family. Jesus uses the strong Jewish language that one cannot be his disciple without “hating” family members. Of course, Jesus does not literally mean to hate others. After all, he said we are to love our enemies and God wants us to honor our father and mother. What Jesus is asking is that we love Him more than our family.

Jesus wants us to have an undivided heart and purity of intention so as to give ourselves to Him. A spirit of detachment from everything gives us the freedom to commit ourselves to Jesus and to do whatever He desires of us.

The second piece of advice is that whoever does not carry his cross cannot be Jesus’ disciple. Everyone who heard Jesus knew what carrying a cross meant since crucifixion was the capital punishment used by the Roman.

We need to deny our self and deny our desires if we wish to follow Jesus. It is another way of repeating the first advice, to be detached from everything to be able to give ourselves to Christ. Whatever the particular cross is for each of us, notice that Jesus says to carry it after him. We are not alone, we are following Jesus with His cross.

The third piece of advice is to renounce all our possessions to follow Jesus. This is especially lived by those who enter religious life as nuns, sisters and religious brothers, who literally detach themselves from everything so that their only possession is Jesus.

For the rest of us, it means living the spirit of detachment remembering we cannot serve both God and mammon (wealth and riches).

So really all three pieces of advice Jesus is asking: to be free from everything so that we can give ourselves fully to Him. Jesus says his advice about detachment is for those who are thinking about on becoming His disciple, for those who are asking “What does God want me to do with my life?” Jesus said they must consider carefully before embarking on the life of a disciple if we are capable of making these sacrifices just like someone who builds a tower needs to work out if he can finish the tower and someone going to war needs to work out if it is worth it.

For those discerning a vocation to the priesthood, these words of Jesus challenge to be diligent in discerning properly like those in the parables today who had to discern building a tower or going to battle. While the Gospel today focuses on what we give up for Jesus, it is good to remember that what we gain is far more than what we give up.

Prayer is the food to give us strength to follow Jesus in the detached way he asks. Prayer is that daily companionship with Jesus when we actively put Jesus first, but not only then, it also strengthens us to put Jesus first for the rest of the day. Coming to daily Mass to receive Holy Communion, spending time in Eucharistic Adoration, confessing sins regularly, all play an important role in being a faithful disciple of Jesus and coming to know what God desires in my life.

Ask Mary to help you place Jesus above everything: school, sports, job, family and material things.

Take up your cross, renounce the things of the world and seek to be a faithful disciple. And if you want to know what specific thing God is asking of you, pray a Rosary Novena and the Virgin Mary will intercede and give you the grace to respond whole hardheartedly to know God, to love God, to serve God, so that you can be with Him forever in heaven.

Mostly taken from Fr. Tommy Lane's Homily