23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time – C
Discipleship according to Luke is some serious business. The point that Luke is making in this gospel reading, is precisely this: that to be a disciple of Jesus, we must make the “valued” choices in our life, even if it means taking up the heavy cross, even if it means rejecting something else.
In the two images, of the man who carefully plans out the building of a tower or the waging of a war against another city, Christ urges us to enter into our relationship with him precisely as realists, with our eyes wide-open, not deceiving ourselves about the kinds of demands that discipleship will make on us, not telling ourselves it will be easy!
Part of the cost of discipleship must be a readiness to center our lives around what Christ tells us is valuable and good, rather than the values of the world in which we live. For instance, Christ tells us that we should “love one another, even our enemies.” This is a difficult demand by Christ to own for some of us.
St. Paul gives us a graphic example of this in the second reading. He sends the newly baptized, Onesimus, the runaway slave of Philemon, a well-to-do influential member of society and the Church, back to his Owner. St. Paul sends him back with a letter, challenging Philemon to receive him as a brother in Christ, not as a slave. St. Paul demands that Philemon reject the standards of society, which would have permitted a beating or even death for the runaway slave, and instead, show him acceptance, love, forgiveness and understanding, as a brother in Christ.
You see, when we give into the ways of society, when we act out of hatred like some members of society, then we find ourselves slipping further and further away from the “values” of a disciple of Jesus, which are: unconditional love, forgiveness, and acceptance of all people created in the image and likeness of God. We have no further to look than the number of people in our society that have a hatred for people of other cultures, ethnic and political backgrounds, and the number of murders carried out each year or the hatred for the culture of life in general.
What this gospel challenges us to is a simple reality check: a realistic, conscious awareness of the implications of our actions as disciples of Christ and their consequences. The cost of discipleship and what it will demand of us is a willingness to pay that price, even if it means being rejected by others who do not share the vision and mission of Christ. If we achieve that, then we have already taken up the cross as disciples and will be rewarded.
As disciples of Christ, we are asked to be counter-cultural; to love the hated, to welcome those alienated, to forgive the unforgiving, and to be Christ to those we sometimes see as “unlovable.” We are called to be disciples when we reject what society hands us as “the norm,” and dare to be different, dare to be holy in the name of Jesus Christ.
The rewards of faithful discipleship will be new life; unlike anything we could imagine. In other words, the cost of discipleship is great – but the rewards are even greater, if we dare to walk that extra mile with Christ.
Wis 9:13-18
Philm 9-10, 12-17
Lk 14:25-33