A Homily for the 23rd Sunday of Ordinary Time (C)
[The Baptismal fount at which I was baptized; St. Anthony’s Church in Trenton, NJ]
November 28, 1964. In case you are wondering, that’s the day that I was baptized, here in St. Anthony’s Church, at that baptismal fount (OK, the fount was back in what is now the rest rooms).
How many of you remember the date of your baptism? Do you consider it a special day? Have you ever reflected on just what a difference your baptism has made in your life? What does it mean to be a baptized Christian? I am sure that many of us can give the description of the effects of baptism that we learned in catechism class. It leaves an indelible mark on our soul, it cleanses us from all sin, it makes us members of the Church, it makes us part of God’s family, and makes us followers of Christ.
A follower of Christ… just what does that mean for us? In today’s Gospel reading we hear that “Great crowds were traveling with Jesus.” We should not confuse this “great crowd” as all being disciples of Jesus. Many of them were probably merely curious about the “latest” big thing, while others were just hoping to get something out of Jesus. Jesus knows that many who are following Him are not really disciples, and that is why He turns to address the crowd. Jesus wants to make two things perfectly clear to those who are thinking about following Him as a disciple.
First He wants us to have no illusions about following Him. His path is hard. The Cross is NOT an option for the Christian. Our human nature is fallen, and even though through baptism the stain of Original Sin is cleansed, our nature remains wounded. The fancy theological word for this is “concupiscence”, and it has three primary effects – a disordering of the passions, a dimming of the intellect, and a weakening of the will. Due to this wounded human nature, getting back up from the fall is going to be hard, even with the grace of God helping us. Jesus tells us that it involves self-sacrifice and suffering; “Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.” As the famous German theologian, Dietrich Bonhoeffer noted in his book, The Cost of Discipleship, there is no such thing as “cheap grace.”
Yet there is another, equally important, lesson in today’s Gospel passage. Jesus is teaching us that following Him involves more than just feelings and vague inspirations. We are also called to use our minds, to put our intelligence and creativity to work in the adventure of following Christ Jesus. This is evident from the examples that Jesus used in today’s Gospel. Both the builder and the king had to channel their enthusiasm through the cool filter of reason. As Christians, as followers of Jesus, we must do the same thing.
Maybe you have felt the emotional excitement that comes from some special grace-filled encounter with the Lord. Maybe it was a retreat or a pilgrimage. They can leave us on an emotional high. Jesus teaches us that these “highs” are like the blossom on a cherry tree; they bloom quickly and fill our souls with a sweet aroma, but then the long, hot summer comes, and we have to persevere patiently. The cherry blossom is the not fruit, just as the emotional and spiritual “high” is not the fruit of faith. For the fruit to mature we must persevere in following an intelligent plan of spiritual and apostolic work. Love, even the lasting love that comes from friendship with Jesus, is often born amidst intense emotions, but it only matures through sweat and suffering, which can only be endured with the aid of reason and conviction. Following Christ Jesus is more than follow the whim of mere passing emotion; it is a long-term project that deserves and engages the whole person.
Why does such a notion of discipleship seem so alien to many of us? We accept the fact that success in other walks of life takes hard work, but we think that we can be a faithful disciple of Christ without making any effort.
Like so many of my generation, one of the “great” movies of my youth was “Star Wars.” George Lucas in an interview once described the work ethic that went into writing the original “Star Wars” screenplay; I guess the younger generation would call it “episode four”. Lucas said that he grew up in a middle-class Midwestern-style American town, that taught him to put in a full 8-hour day of work, so for 8 hours he would sit at his desk, no matter what happened. He had to force himself to write by saying that he could not get out of his chair until 5 o’clock. He even put a big calendar on the wall above his desk, with notes saying that he needed to be at 25 pages by Tuesday, and at page 30 by Wednesday. He gave himself a five page a day quota, and did not leave “work” until he was done.
“Star Wars” certainly turned out to be a fantastic movie – and for one of my college roommates it even seemed to be a life altering event. Yet it cannot compare to eternal life with Jesus in Heaven. In His parables about the builder planning to build a tower and the king planning to go to war, Jesus is trying to telling us that we need to DECIDE to take our Christianity seriously enough that we are willing to work at it, every day, and not just for about an hour a week on Sunday. We need to put our whole selves into being a disciple of Jesus.
Jesus tells us that if we let family obligations or loyalties mean more to us than what discipleship requires, then we should not bother to follow Him. He tell us that if we choose to follow Him we must be prepared to share in His rejection, persecution, and perhaps even His death. Obviously He wants us to weight this decision carefully. Baptism is more than just a “naming” ceremony, and Confirmation is more than just an excuse to have a party. They are serious commitments that requires a radical turnabout in our lives so that NOTHING takes precedence over Christ Jesus.
One of the simplest things that we can do to help our spiritual lives become more stable and robust, and to grow in spiritual maturity is to follow through on our spiritual commitments. We must move beyond the fuzzy feeling spirituality that is so popular today, and develop a mature faith in Jesus our Savior. Maybe we could commit to daily recitation of the Rosary, or a Holy Hour in our Adoration Chapel. Maybe we could renew our confidence in Christ’s love through the First Friday devotion of receiving Holy Communion in a spirit of gratitude on nine consecutive First Fridays of the month. Whatever spiritual commitment that we make does not have to be large. It can be small, as long as it is substantial, so to move us beyond the fuzzy feelings, into the real, costly grace of being a Disciple of Jesus Christ.
