June 27, 2010 Cycle C
1 Kings 19:16b,19-21 Galatians 5:1,13-18 Luke 9:51-62
A story is told of a little girl sitting on her grandfather’s lap as he read her a bedtime story. From time to time she would take her eyes off the book and reach up to touch the wrinkled cheek of her grandfather. She was alternately stroking her own cheek and then his again. Finally she spoke up and said, “Grandpa, did God make you?”
He answered, “Yes, sweetheart, God made me a long time ago.” She paused, “Oh! Grandpa did God make me too?” “Yes indeed honey,” he said. “God made you just a little while ago.”
Feeling their respective faces again, the little girl observed, “God’s getting better at it, isn’t He?”
Well, I guess God is getting better at many things depending on your perspective. The Gospel today speaks to us about perspectives of life and certainly reminds us that the constancy of God’s mission must go on. There is really no time for “but first” or “in a minute” or “no, on second thought.” To be authentic and faithful disciples of Jesus Christ, we cannot look back with regrets or doubts, or second-guessing. But as we heard, “continue to keep our hand to the plow, realizing the harvest of God’s compassion and justice in our own pieces of the vineyard.”
As we gather today to reflect on this last weekend of the month of June, we are faced with some of the more radical sayings of Christ, sayings that tell us what a radical challenge Jesus is and how inadequate our response can be to Him. For example, when we hear the statement “foxes have dens, and birds of the sky have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to rest His head.” – What is he speaking about? Well, I think he’s talking about the reality that if you are truly a follower you can’t always expect to have the comfort and serenity of even the wild animals. Don’t always expect to get a good nights sleep every night, because that is something a follower of Christ must be willing to give up.
For example, the doctor who is devoted to his patients, or the mental health counselor who agonizes over the threatened suicide of one of his clients, or the faithful priest who leaves his bed to comfort the family of a dying man, or the mother who waits up for her teenage daughter or son to return. Anyone who cares for people and desires to do so as a follower of Christ should not expect to sleep like a happy fox in a warm den night after night. And especially not on weekends, or when the moon is full.
The response to the challenges of Christ is to be total and challenges us to prioritize other duties, however naturally and normally important those might seem to be. This reminds me of a teaching from St. Theresa of Avila, the great mystic and Doctor of the Church. When she spoke about prayer she said, “If you are in prayer and you see someone in need, stop what you are doing and go help that person. If you are on your way to Mass and see someone in need, stop and help that person.”
The third person in the Gospel approaches Jesus and says, “I will follow you Lord. But first let me say farewell to my family at home.” Jesus answered him and said, “No one who sets a hand to the plow, or looks to what was left behind is fit for the Kingdom of God.” What a scolding. What a radical statement. But you see at the time of Christ, a plow was a small handheld instrument pulled by an ox, or a mule. One had to keep a steady focus on the plow or it would veer off to the side and the plowman would end up with crooked rows.
What is the teaching? If we take our eyes off the plow, we can be in trouble. We know that our response to the challenge of Christ is often inadequate. But there is one thing that makes us fit for the Kingdom of God, and that is the great mercy of God. It is God’s saving mercy that has come to us through the suffering death and resurrection of Jesus. All that mercy makes up for our own inadequacies and gives us the great freedom that St. Paul speaks about in his letter to the Galatians. It’s that great saving mystery we recall here today at this Mass and we give thanks for it by entering into our Eucharist celebration.
Amen. Amen. Msgr. Tom, Pastor Christ the King