20211103 PUTTING JESUS FIRST IN OUR RELATIONSHIPS
03 November, 2021, Wednesday, 31st Week, Ordinary Time
First reading | Romans 13:8-10 © |
Your only debt should be the debt of mutual love
Avoid getting into debt, except the debt of mutual love. If you love your fellow men you have carried out your obligations. All the commandments: You shall not commit adultery, you shall not kill, you shall not steal, you shall not covet, and so on, are summed up in this single command: You must love your neighbour as yourself. Love is the one thing that cannot hurt your neighbour; that is why it is the answer to every one of the commandments.
Responsorial Psalm |
Psalm 111(112):1-2,4-5,9 © |
Happy the man who takes pity and lends.
or
Alleluia!
Happy the man who fears the Lord,
who takes delight in all his commands.
His sons will be powerful on earth;
the children of the upright are blessed.
Happy the man who takes pity and lends.
or
Alleluia!
He is a light in the darkness for the upright:
he is generous, merciful and just.
The good man takes pity and lends,
he conducts his affairs with honour.
Happy the man who takes pity and lends.
or
Alleluia!
Open-handed, he gives to the poor;
his justice stands firm for ever.
His head will be raised in glory.
Happy the man who takes pity and lends.
or
Alleluia!
Gospel Acclamation | Ps118:88 |
Alleluia, alleluia!
Because of your love give me life,
and I will do your will.
Alleluia!
Or: | 1P4:14 |
Alleluia, alleluia!
It is a blessing for you
when they insult you for bearing the name of Christ,
for the Spirit of God rests on you.
Alleluia!
Gospel | Luke 14:25-33 © |
Anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple
Great crowds accompanied Jesus on his way and he turned and spoke to them. ‘If any man comes to me without hating his father, mother, wife, children, brothers, sisters, yes and his own life too, he cannot be my disciple. Anyone who does not carry his cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.
‘And 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? If not, then while the other king was still a long way off, he would send envoys to sue for peace. So in the same way, none of you can be my disciple unless he gives up all his possessions.’
PUTTING JESUS FIRST IN OUR RELATIONSHIPS
SCRIPTURE READINGS: [Rom 13:8-10; Ps 112:1-2,4-5,9; Lk 14:25-33 ]
Jesus was on the way to Jerusalem, the place of His passion and glory. And we are told that “Great crowds accompanied Jesus on his way and he turned and spoke to them.” Who was this crowd? Most of them were merely followers and not disciples. They walked with Jesus but this did not necessarily mean that they were committed to the Lord. And this is true for us who are Catholics as well. Many of us are baptized but we are not disciples of the Lord. We fall into the category of followers. We are just members of the Roman Catholic Church. We join in for some activities, events and some programs. But we are not really committed to the Church nor to Christ. We pick and choose those doctrines that we like, those scripture texts that we agree with, and discard those that we do not agree with.
What is the difference between being a follower and a disciple? A follower picks and chooses, a disciple learns by listening and obeying. In the gospel, Jesus said, “Everyone then who hears these words of mine and acts on them will be like a wise man who built his house on rock. The rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on rock.” (Mt 7:24f) A disciple is one who does not just follow Jesus to Jerusalem and then desert Him when He is in trouble, or when the tide of popularity goes against Him, but he is ready to stand by our Lord and carry the cross after Him like Simon of Cyrene. Jesus emphatically said, “Anyone who does not carry his cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.”
Hence, those of us who want to be disciples of our Lord must first count the cost of discipleship. Otherwise, the Lord tells us we would be the like the man who planned to build a tower but did 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.'” This is the mistake of many Catholics. They think baptism is merely about attending a nine-month Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults. Once baptized, they can get back to their old way of life, as if it is a seminar that they had completed. On the contrary, the real work of being a Christian comes after baptism when we are tested in our faith, challenged in our beliefs and how we live out the gospel in our daily life, at work, at home and in the community. It means ongoing discipleship, attending worship, spending time in prayer and praying the Word of God, sharing the Word of God with a close circle of friends, being involved in the community’s activities, and doing good.
Secondly, we need to consider the consequences of rejecting our Lord. In the analogy given by our Lord about a king marching to war against another king. Surely, He said, should he 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? If not, then while the other king was still a long way off, he would send envoys to sue for peace.” Unlike the previous analogy, this person does not have much of a choice. In the former case, he could choose to build a tower or not even start it in the first place. But in this case, if he did not come to a compromise with the more powerful king, he would lose the battle and everything he had. In such a situation, he would be forced to humble himself, and recognize the more powerful king and seek to make peace with him instead of starting a losing battle. The point Jesus was driving at was that He is more powerful and greater than Satan and the world. Knowing that He is the King of Kings, surely, it would be safer for us to surrender ourselves to Him, place ourselves under His divine protection, and work with Him for our happiness, peace and freedom. If we fail to place ourselves under His Lordship, we will ruin our lives, lose our peace and freedom to the Evil One.
Thirdly, we must put Jesus as the first among all our relationships and the centre of our lives. “If any man comes to me without hating his father, mother, wife, children, brothers, sisters, yes and his own life too, he cannot be my disciple.” In asking us to hate our loved ones and ourselves, it is but a Semitic way of underscoring the total allegiance and commitment to Him. He must be the first among all relationships.
Indeed, this is a very important principle as St Paul warns us in his letter to the Romans. “Though they knew God, they did not honour him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their senseless minds were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools; and they exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling a mortal human being or birds or four-footed animals or reptiles. Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the degrading of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.” (Rom 1:21-25)
All other relationships find their place when we put Jesus at the centre of all our relationships. In other words, when we love Jesus first and above all, every relationship is given its proper measure. We will be able to render the love from Jesus to our parents, spouse, children, siblings and ourselves in the right order without displacing Jesus as the first and centre of all relationships. Without putting the Lord at the centre, we end up worshipping other creatures and making them gods in our lives, seeking to possess them and ending up being slaves to them. And the truth is that although human relationships are important, such relationships cannot work out except when we place them under the Lord’s authority and guidance.
Today’s gospel demand must also be read in the context of the early Church because faith in Jesus often divided the family as well because not all would accept the gospel. Those who became Christians were ostracized by their family and community. They were forced to choose between Christ or their loved ones. A time will come too when we might have to choose between our loved ones, our parents, our children and our fiancé over Christ. A time would come when we have to choose the gospel values over what the world wants to offer us, power, promotion, money and glory. It would be a difficult choice because it means sacrificing the world for Christ. That is why the gospel concludes, “So in the same way, none of you can be my disciples unless he gives up all his possessions.”
The price of discipleship might seem too demanding and beyond us. This is true. On our own strength we cannot. This is why in the first reading, St Paul’s letter to the Romans, wrote, “Love is the answer to every one of the commandments.” Indeed, although St Paul was speaking about fulfilling all the commandments towards our neighbours, the presupposition is that we must first have been loved by our Lord. Discipleship is not a matter of enrolling under a master who trains us in the way of the gospel. Rather, Christian discipleship is one of learning, it is one of loving.
We are called to love our Lord, or rather be loved by our Lord before we can choose Him. St John wrote, “In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins. Beloved, since God loved us so much, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God lives in us, and his love is perfected in us.” (1 Jn 4:10-12) Indeed, before St Paul exhorted the Romans on how they should live out their new-found identity as adopted sons and daughters in Christ, St Paul underscored the love of God in Christ Jesus who reconciled us with His Father, and justified us through His death on the cross and then filled us with His love through the giving of the Holy Spirit. Hence, he concluded, “In all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that nothing, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Rom 8:37f) The Holy Spirit brings us to fulfilment.
Written by The Most Rev William Goh, Roman Catholic Archbishop of Singapore © All Rights Reserved.
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