Homily
for the 13th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Cycle C)
Based
on Lk 9:51-62 (Gospel),
1 K 19:16b,
19-21
(First Reading) and Ga 5:1,13-18 (Second Reading)
From
the Series: “Reflections and Teachings of the Desert”
YOKE OF
CHRIST IN DISCIPLESHIP
‘
The Gospel reading for this 13th
Sunday in Ordinary Time is from Lk 9:51-62.
Verse 51
says: Now as the time drew near for him
to be taken up to heaven, k he
resolutely took the road for Jerusalem… Footnote
k says “Lit. ‘for his taking up’. This ‘assumption’ of Jesus, cf. 2 K 2:9-11;
Mk 16:19; Ac 1:2,10-11; 1 Tm 3:16, refers to the last days of his suffering
life (Passion, death) and the beginning of his glory (resurrection, ascension).
Jn, thinking more theologically, uses the word ‘glorify’ in connection with the
whole of this period, Jn 7:39; 12:16,23; 13:31f; for him the crucifixion is a
‘lifting up’, Jn 12:32+.”
Parallel texts are:
2.
Lk 17:11
- Now on the way to Jerusalem, he
traveled along the border between Samaria and Galileec. Footnote c says “Making
for the Jordan valley down to Jericho, 18:35; from there he goes up to
Jerusalem”.
3.
Lk 18:31
- Then taking the Twelve aside he said to them, ‘Now we are going up to
Jerusalem, and everything that is written by the prophetsd about the
Son of Man is to come true.
Footnote d says “Lk often remarks that
the Passion was foretold by th prophets, Lk. 24:25,27,44; Ac “2:23+; 3:18,24+;
8:32-35; 13:27; 26:22f.
5.
Lk 24:51
- Now he blessed them, he withdrew from them and was carried up to heaven.l Footnote l says “Om.
‘and was carried up to heaven’.”
6.
Mt 19:1
- Jesus had now finished what he wanted to say, he left Galilee and
came to the part of Judea which is on the far side of the Jordan.
Verses 52,
53 and 54 say: and sent messengers ahead
of him. These set out, and they went into a Samaritan village to make
preparations for him, But the people would not receive him because he was
making for Jerusalem.l Seeing this, the disciples James and John
said, ‘Lord, do you want us to call down fire from heaven to burn them up?m Footnote l says “The hatred of the Samaritans for the Jews,
Jn 4:9+, would show itself particularly towards those on pilgrimage to
Jerusalem; hence it was usual to bypass this territory, cf. Mt 10:5. Only Lk
and Jn (4:1-42) mention Christ’s presence in this schismatic province, cfLk
17:11,16. The early Church was not slow to follow his example, Ac 8:5-25”; and Footnote m
says “Add ‘as Elijah did’. Allusion to 2
K 1:10-12. James and John are seen here as ‘sons of thunder’ indeed, Mk 3:17.”
Parallel
text is 2 K 1:10 that says: Elijah answered the captain, “If I
am a man of God, let your fire come down from heaven and destroy both you and
your fifty men.” And fire came down from heaven and destroyed him and his fifty
men.
Verses 55,
56 and 57 say: But he turned and rebuked them,n And they went off to
another village. As they travelled along they met a man on the road who said to
him, ‘I will follow you wherever you go’. Footnote n says “Add ‘You do not know what spirit you are
made of. The Son of Man came not to destroy souls but to save them.’”
Parallel
text for verse 27 is Mt 8:18-22 that
says: When
Jesus saw the great crowd about him, he gave orders to leave to the other sideg (v. 18). One
of the scribes then came up and said to him, “Master, I will follow you
wherever you go” (v. 19). Jesus
replied, ‘Foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of
Manh has nowhere to lay his head’ (v. 20). Another
man, one of his disciples said to him, “Sir, let me go and bury my father first”
(v. 21). But
Jesus replied, “Follow me, and leave the dead to bury their dead… Footnote h says “With
the exception of Ac 7:56, Rv 1:13; 14:14; this title appears only in the gospels. There is no doubt that Jesus used it
of himself, and indeed preferred it to others. At times he uses it to express
his lowly state, 8:20; 11:19; 20:28, especially the humiliation of the Passion,
17:22, etc. At others times it is used to proclaim the definitive triumph of
his resurrection, 17:9, of his return in glory, 24:30; of his coming in
judgment, 25:31. That this title, Aramaic in flavor, could bring together these
seemingly opposed qualities is clear
from the following considerations. The phrase originally meant ‘man’, Ezk.
2:1+, and by reason of its unusual and indirect form it underlined the lowliness
of man’s state. But the title suggested glory, too. It was used in Dn 7:13+,
and later in the Jewish apocalyptic Book of Enoch, to indicate the transcendent
figure, heavenly in origin, who was to receive from God’s hand the
eschatological kingdom (the kingdom ‘at the end of times’). In this way
therefore the title both veiled and hinted at (cf. Mk. 1:34+; Mt. 13:13+) the
sort of Messiah Jesus was. Moreover, the explicit avowal in the presence of the
Sanhedrin, 26:64+, should have removed all ambiguity.”
Verses 58
and 59 say: Jesus answered, ‘Foxes have
holes and the birds of the air have nests, but the son of man has nowhere to
lay his head’. 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.”
Parallel
text for verse 59 is Lk 14:26,33 that says: “If a man comes to me without hatingc his father, mother,
wife,d children, brothers, sisters, and even his own life, he cannot
be my disciple (v. 26).So in the same way, none of you can be
my disciple unless he give not renounce all his possessions (v. 33). 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.”
Verse 60 says: But
he answered, ‘Leave the dead to bury their dead;p your duty is to go
and spread the news of the kingdom of God’. Footnote p says “A
play on the two meaning of ‘death’; physical and spiritual.”
Parallel text is 1 Tm 5:6 that
says: The one who thinks only of pleasure is already dead
while she is still alive.
Verses 61
and 62 say: Another said, ‘I will follow
you, sir, but first let me go and say goodbye to my people at home’. Jesus said to him, ‘Once the hand is laid on
the plow, no one who looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.”
Parallel text is Ph 3:13 that
says: I can assure you, my brothers, I am far from
thinking that I have already won. All I can say is that I forget the past and I
strain ahead for what is still to come.
The First Reading is from 1 K
19:16b, 19-21.
Verse 16b
says: And to anointg Elisha son
of Saphat, of Abel Meholah, as prophet to succeed you. Footnote g says “Anointing, Ex 30:24+, was reserved for
kings, 1 K 1:34; parallelism explains the use of the word here.”
Parallel
texts are:
1. 1 K 19:19-21 that says: Leaving there,h he came on
Elisha son of Saphat as he was ploughing behind twelve yoke of oxen, he himself
being the twelfth. Elisha passed near to him and threw his cloak over to himi
(v. 19) Elisha left his oxen and ran after Elijah. ‘Let me kiss my father and
mother, then I will follow you’ he said. Elijah answered, ‘Go, go back; for
have I done anything to you? (v. 20)’Elisha turned away, took the pair of oxen
and slaughtered them. He used the plough for cooking the oxen, then gave it to
his men, who ate. He then rose and
followed Elijah and became his servant (v. 21). Footnote h says “Vv 19-21 are borrowed from the Elisha cycle”;
Footnote i says “The cloak
symbolizes the person and rights of its owner. That of Elisha has, moreover,
miraculous properties, 2 K 2:8. Elijah acquires an authority over Elisha which
the latter cannot resist. By destroying plough and oxen Elisha formally
renounces his old way of life.”
2.
1 K 19:16 - You are to
anoint Jehu, son of Nimshi, as king of Israelf, and to anoint Elishag,
son of Shaphat of Abel-Meholah, as prophet to succeed you. Footnote f says “These
tasks were I fact later performed by Elisha.”; and Footnote g
says “Anointing, Ex 30:24+, was reserved
for kings, 1 K 1:34; parallelism explains the use of the word here.”
Verse 19 says: Leaving there,h
he came on Elisha son of Saphat as he was ploughing behind twelve yoke of oxen,
he himself being the twelfth. Elisha passed near to him and threw his cloak
over to him.i
Footnote (See No. 1 parallel text above).
Parallel text is 2 K
2:13 that says: He picked up the cloak
of Elijah which had fallen, went back and stood on the bank of the Jordan.
Verse 20 says: Elisha left his
oxen and ran after Elijah. ‘Let me kiss my father and mother, then I will
follow you’ he said.Elijah answered, ‘Go, go back; for have I done anything to
you?’
Parallel text is Lk 9:61
that says: Another said, “I will follow
you, sir, but first let me go and say goodbye to my people at home.
Verse 21 says: Elisha turned away, took the pair of oxen and
slaughtered them. He used the plough for cooking the oxen, then gave it to his
men, who ate. He then rose and followed
Elijah and became his servant.
Parallel text is Mt 14:18,22 that says:
‘Bring them here to me’ he said (v. 18). Directly after this, he made
the disciples get into the boat and go on ahead to the other side while he
would send the crowds away.
The Second Reading is taken from Ga 5:1,13-18.
Verses 1
and 13 say: When Christ freed us, he meant us to remain free.a Stand
firm, therefore, and do not submit again to the yoke of slavery. My brothers, you were called, as you know, to
liberty; but be careful, or this liberty will provide an opening for
self-indulgence. Serve one another, rather, in works of love… Footnote a says “Human beings must choose either Christ or the Law as author of
salvation. Some witnesses (Vulg.) join these words with the preceding verse
‘with the freedom by which Christ has made us free.’”
Parallel texts for verse 13 are:
3.
Jude 4 Certain
people have infiltrated among you, and they are the ones you had a warning
about, in writing long ago, when they were condemned,d for denying
all religion, turning the grace of our God into immorality, and rejecting our
only Master and Lord, Jesus Christe. Footnote d says “Lit ‘For certain men have crept in who long
ago have been written beforehand for their judgment’; var. ‘for this sin’”;
and Footnote e says “Var ‘rejecting God, the only Master and our
Lord Jesus Christ.’”
Verses 14 and 15 say: since the
whole Law is summarized in a single command: Love your neighbor as yourself. If
you go snapping at each other and tearing each other to pieces, you had better
watch or you will destroy the whole community.
Parallel texts are:
2.
Lv 19:18
- You must not exact vengeance, nor must you bear a grudge against the children
of your own people. You must love your neighbor as yourself. I am Yahweh.
Verse 16 says:
Let
me put it this way: if you are guided by the Spirit you will be in no danger of
yielding to self-indulgence,
Parallel
text is Rm 8:5 that says: The unspiritual
are interested only in what is unspiritual, but the spiritual are interested in
spiritual things.
Verse 17
says: since self-indulgence is the opposite of the Spirit, the Spirit is
totally against such a thing, and it is precisely because the two are so
opposed that you do not always carry out your good intentions.
Parallel texts are:
Verse 18 says: If you
are led by the Spirit, no law can touch you.
Parallel text is Rm 8:14 that
says: Everyone movedh by the spirit is a
son of God.
Footnote h
says ‘led’ seems inadequate: the Holy
Spirit is much more than one who inwardly admonishes, he is the principle of a
life truly divine, cf. Ga. 2:20.”
The yoke of
Christ in Discipleship is expressed in the text of Ph 3:13 - “I can assure you, my brothers, I am far from
thinking that I have already won. All I can say is that I forget the past and
I strain ahead for what is still to
come”. The yoke that Elisha burned and made into fuel to cook the two oxen and
then to follow Elijah in the today’s Second Reading, is a symbol of the past
life that a prospective disciple of Christ must give up and to take up a new
yoke of a future, or coming, life of
following Christ in discipleship.
What is
important is the “now’, according to Jesus Christ in this gospel. According to Zeitgeist, The Movie, do not ‘ borrow from the past” or “invite the
future.” The ‘now’ is what matters even if its demands as sometimes hard to
accept. This is the liberty that Apostle Paul says in Ga. 1:13. To look for the past, or to summon the future
is “slavery’. The evil to fight, according to the apostle is self-indulgence
(Gal 1:16), or to indulge the self into fruitless, unspiritual, effort of
summoning the dead actions of the past or the magic of the future. If one is ‘led by the Spirit” of the now,
then ‘no law can touch you’ (Gal 1: 18).
As Jesus Christ said, ‘Once the hand is laid on the plow, no one who looks back is fit for the
kingdom of God.” (Lk9:62), Or, as the Apostle Paul had also said: “All I can
say is that I forget the past and I strain ahead for what is still to come” (Ph 3:13).
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