Homily for the 23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time (Cycle C)
Based on Lk 14:25-33 (Gospel),
Ws 9:13-18b (First Reading) and Phlm
9-10, 12-17 (Second Reading)
From the Series: “Reflections and Teachings of the Desert”
COST
OF DISCIPLESHIP
“None of you can
be my disciple unless he gives up all his possessions” (Lk 14:33)
The Gospel
narrative for this Sunday is taken from Lk 14:25-33. Verses 25 and 26 say: Great crowds accompanied him on his way and
he turned and spoke to them. If any man comes to me without hatingc
his father, mother, wife,d children, brothers, sisters, and even his
own life, he cannot be my disciple. Footnote c says “Hebraism. Jesus asks, not for hate, but for
total detachment now, cf. 9:57-62”; and Footnote d says “‘wife’, peculiar to Lk, illustrating his
leaning to ascetism, cf. 1 Co 7, So Lk also, 18:29”.
Parallel texts are:
1.
Mt 10:37
-“Anyone who prefers father or mother to
me is not worthy of me. Anyone who prefers son or daughter to me is not worthy
of me;
2. Mt
19:29 - Everyone who has left houses,
brothers, sisters, father, mother, childreni or land for the sake of
my name will be repaid a hundred times over, and also inherit eternal life.
Footnote i says “Add, ‘wife’”.
3.
Mt 10:38 - Anyone who does not take up his cross
and follow in my footsteps is not worthy of me.
4.
Mt 16:24 - Then Jesus said to his disciples,
“Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and
follow me.
5.
Mk 8:34 -
He called the people and his disciples to him and said, “If anyone wants to be
a follower of mine, let him renounce himself and take up his cross, and follow
me.
Verse 27 says: Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after me
cannot be my disciple.
Parallel texts are:
1.
Lk 9:23 - Then to all he said, ‘If anyone wants
to be a follower of mine, let him renounce himself and take up his cross every
day and follow me.
2.
Jn 12:26 - If a
man serves, he must follow me, whenever I am,e my servant will be
there too. If anyone serves me, my Father will honor him. Footnote e says “In the glory of the Father, cf. 14:3; 17:24”.
Verses 28,
29, 30 and 31 says: ‘An indeed, which of you here, intending to build a tower,
would not first sit down and work out the cost to see if he had enough to
complete it? Otherwise, if he laid the foundation and then found himself unable
to finish the work, the onlookers would all start making fun of him and saying,
Here is a man who started to build and was unable to finish”. Or again, what king marching to war against
another king would not first sit down and consider whether with ten thousand
men he could stand up to the other who advanced against him with twenty thousand?
Parallel text for verse 31 is Pr 24:6 that
says: For war is
won by sound thinking and victory rests in having many counsellors.
Verses 32 and 33 say: If not, then while the other king was still a long way off, he would
send envoy to sue for peace. So in the
same way, none of you can be my disciple unless he gives up all his
possessions.e Footnote e says “Applicable to all
disciples – Lk seems to make no distinction.”
Parallel texts for verse 33 are:
1.
Lk 9:59 – “Another to whom he said, ‘Follow
me’, replied,o ‘Let me go and
bury my father first’.” Footnote o says “Add, ‘Lord’, cf Mt 8:21”.
2.
Lk 12:33 - On
almsgivingd Sell you possessions and give alms. Get yourselves
purses that do not wear out, treasure that will not fail you, in heaven where
no thief can reach it and no moth destroy it. Footnote d says “That riches are a danger and should be given
away in alms is characteristic teaching of Lk: cf. 3:11; 6:30; 7:5; 11:41;
12:33-34; 14:14; 16:9; 18:22; 19:8; Ac 9:36; Ac 10:2,4,31.”
The First Reading is from Ws 9:13-18b. Verse 13 and
14 say: What man indeed can know the intentions of God? Who can divine the will
of the Lord? The reasoning of mortals are unsure and our intentions unstable;
Parallel texts for verse 13 are:
1.
Rm 11:34
- “Who can ever know the mind of the Lord? Who could ever be his counsellor?”
2. 1
Co 2:16 - As scripture says: Who can
know the mind of the Lord, so can teach him?” But we are those who have the
mind of Christ.j. Footnote j says “Var. ‘of the Lord’.”
Verse 15 says: For
a perishable body presses down the soul, and this tent of clay weighs down the
teeming mind.h Footnote h says “The term are reminiscent of Plato but the metaphor is no less biblical,
see Jb 4:19 (cf. 2 Co 4:7) and Is 38:12 (cf. 2 Co 5:1,4). The antithesis
between body and spirit is elaborated later by Apostle Paul, Ga. 5:17; Rm
7:14-25.”
Parallel texts are:
1. Jb
4:19 - What then of those who live in houses of clay, who are founded on dust?
They are crushed as easily as moth!
2.
Is 38:12 - My tent is pulled up and thrown away like
a tent of a shepherd; like a weaver you roll upf my life, to cut it from the loom. From dawn to night you are compassing
my end. Footnote f says “‘you roll
up’ corr.; ‘he rolls up’ Hebr.”
3. Rm
7:14, 25 - The law of course as we know that is
spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin (v. 14), Thanks be to God through Jesus
Christ our Lord. In short, it is I who with my reasonn serve the Law
of God and no less I who serve in my unspiritual self the law of sin. o
(v. 25). Footnote n says “The
nous, human reason or mind, is a Greek idea very different from the pneuma or
supernatural Spirit, 5:5+, and even from the spirit in the biblical sense of
man’s higher self, 1:9+. It is the principle of understanding, 1 Co 14:14, 15,
19; Ph 4:7; 2 Th 2:2; cf. Lk 24:45; Rv 13:18; 17:9, and of moral judgment, Rm
14:5; 1 Co 1:10. Usually it is reliable, Rm 7:23,25, but is at times perverted,
1:28; Ep 4:17; 1 Tm 6:5; 2 Tm 3:8; Tt 1:15, by the ‘flesh’, Col 2:18; cf. Rm
7:5+, and has to be renewed, Rm 12:2, within man’s own spirit by the Spirit of
God, Ep 4:23f; cf. 3:10”; and Footnote o says “This sentence, which would come more naturally
before verse 24, seems to have been added – perhaps by Paul himself.”
4. 2
P 1:13 - I am sure it is my duty, as long as I
am in this tent, to keep stirring you up with reminders …
Verse 16 says: It is hard enough
for us to work out what is on earth, laborious to know what lies within our
reach; and who, then, can discover what is in the heavens?
Parallel texts are:
1. Is
55:9 - Yes, the heavens are as high above the earth as my ways are above your
ways, my thoughts above your thoughts.
2. Jn
3:12 - If you do not believe me when I speak about things in this world, how
are you going to believe me when I speak to you about heavenly things?
Verse 17 says: As for your intention, who could have
learnt it, had you not granted Wisdom and sent your holy spirit from above?
Parallel
texts are:
1. Mt 11:27 -
Everything has been entrusted to me by
my Father; and no one knows the Son except the Father, just as no one knows the
Father except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.j
Footnote j says “v. 27
has a Johannine flavor: awareness of Christ’s divine sonship exists in the
deepest stratum of the synoptic tradition as well as in Jn.”
2. Ps 51:12 -
Be my saviour again, renew my joy, keep my spirit steady and willing….
Verse 18b says: and men been taught what pleases you…
Parallel text is Ba 4:4 that says: Israel, blessed are we: what
pleases God has been revealed to us.
The Second Reading is from Phlm 9-10, 12-17. Verse 9 says: I am appealing to your love instead, reminding
you that this is Paul writing, an old man now and, what is more, still a
prisoner of Christ Jesus.
Parallel texts are:
1.
Ep 3:1 - So I, Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus
for the sake of you pagans...
2.
Ep 4:1 - I, prisoner in the Lord,
implore you therefore to lead a life worthy of your vocation.
3.
Col 4:18 - Here
is a greeting in my own handwriting-Paul. Remember the chains I wear. Grace be
with you.f Footnote
f says “Add. (Vulg.) ‘Amen’,
cf. Ph 4:2.”
Verse 10 says: I
am appealing to you for a child of mine, whose father I becamec
while wearing these chains: I mean Onesimus. Footnote c says “He became his father by converting him, cf 1 Co 4:15; Ga 4:19.
Parallel texts are:
1.
1 Co 4:16 - That is why I beg you to copy me.
2.
Ga 4:19 - my children! I must go through the pain of giving birth to you all
over again, until Christ is formed in you.
3.
Col 4:9 - With him I am sending Onesimus, that
dear and faithful brother who is a citizen of yours. They will tell you
everything that is happening here.
4.
1 Th 2:11 - You can remember how we treated every
one of you as a father treats his children,
Verse 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16 and 17 say: I am sending him back to you, and with
him-I could say-a part of my own self.e I should have liked to keep
him with me; he could have been a substitute for you, to help me while I am in
the chains that the Good News has brought me. However, I did not want to do
anything without your consent; it would have been forcing your act of kindness,
which should be spontaneous. I know you have been deprived of Onesimus for a
time,f but it was only so that you could have him back for ever, not
as a slave anymore, but something much better than a slave, a dear brother;
especially dear to me, but how much more to you, as a blood-brother as well as
a brother in the Lord.g So
if all that we have in common means anything to you, welcome him as you would
me. Footnote e says “‘And with him…’; var. (Vulg.) ‘and I ask
you to welcome him as though he were myself’, cf. v. 17”; Footnote f says
“‘Deprived” of him by God who allowed the
slave to escape only so that everyone
might subsequently benefit”; and Footnote g says “Lit.
‘as a brother both in the flesh and in the Lord’.“
Parallel texts for verse 16 are:
2.
Ep 6:5-9 - Slaves, be obedient to the men who are
called your masters in the world, with deep respectb and sincere
loyalty, as you are obedient to Christ (v. 5); not only when you are under
their eye, as if you had only to please men, but because you are slaves of
Christ and wholeheartedly do the will of God (v. 6). Work hard and willingly,
but do it for the sake of the Lord and not for the sake of men (v. 7). You can
be sure that everyone, whether a slave or a free man, will be properly rewarded
by the Lord for whatever work he has done well (v. 8). And those of you who are
employers, treat yourselves in the same spirit; do without threats, remembering
that they and you have the same Master in heaven and he is not impressed by one
person more than by another (v. 9). Footnote b says “Lit. ‘Fear and trembling’, cf. 1 Co 2:3+”.
3.
Col 3:22 - 4:1 - Slaves, be obedient to the men who are
called your masters in this world; not only when you are under their eye, as is
you have to please men, but wholeheartedly, out of respect for the Master.j
(v. 22). Whatever your work is, put your heart to it as if it were for the Lord
and not for men (v. 23), knowing that the Lord will repay youby making you his
heirs.k It is Christ the Lord that you are serving (v. 24); for any
one who does wrong will be repaid in
kind and he does not favor one person
more than another (v. 25). 4:1 Masters, make sure that your slaves are given
what is just and fair, knowing that you too have a Master in heaven. Footnote
j says “‘your master…the
Master’; Paul uses the same word each time, i.e. Christ is the master equally
of both slave and slave-owner; and Footnote k says That a master should name a slave as his heir,
cf. Mt 21:35-8; Lk 15:19; Ga. 4:1-2, is one of the most impressive proofs of
how different the new creation ‘in Christ’ is, cf. Rm 8:15-1; Ga 4:3-7; Phm 16.
When we talk
of “cost”, we talk about an amount or sum of money which we have to spend for
something.
When we talk
about the cost of discipleship of Christ, we talk about the amount or sum of
something which we have to spend to follow Jesus Christ. The gospel narrative
for this Sunday says that the cost which Jesus Christ demands in following him
as his disciple is to renounce, or give up, everything. The end purpose of renunciation
is so that the disciple of Christ will be detach from all worldly concerns so
that nothing distracts him from following Jesus Christ. This, of course, is
not a permanent detachment; it will only
last as long as he is in a stage of discipleship. After that stage, we can
return to his attachments to the world.
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