Thirteenth Sunday in
Ordinary Time
1 Kg 19. 16b,
19-21 Psalm 16 Gal 5.1, 13 – 18 Lk 9. 51 – 62
The
entire ninth chapter of Luke’s Gospel speaks of discipleship. Last week we heard Jesus ask, “Who do you say
I am” and Peter’s graced response, “The Christ of God.” It appears he doesn’t really understand his
own insight and the disciples surely don’t understand when Jesus speaks twice
of the suffering that lies ahead of him.
Yet
Jesus is “resolutely determined to journey to Jerusalem.” He does understand that he is walking into
his own suffering and he is freely choosing to follow the path to which his
call leads him. “I have come that you
may have life and have it to the full.”
Today
we hear that on the way he meets three people.
The first one approaches Jesus on his own initiative saying, “I will
follow you wherever you go” and Jesus tells him that, if he is in Jesus’
company, he will have nowhere to lay his head.
Jesus himself invites a second person:
“Follow me.” The man says he
wants to first bury his father – we don’t know if his father just died or if he
wants to wait until he is free of all his family obligations – but Jesus
reminds him (and us) that there is an urgency to proclaim the Kingdom of God. The third person is also ready to follow but
wants to say goodbye to his family at home and the life he is leaving. Jesus reminds him (and us) that if we set out
to follow Jesus, we can’t always be looking back over our shoulder to what was
or what could have been. We have no idea
what happened to the people called in today’s gospel but we do know that, to
follow Jesus, requires a single-hearted resolve and freedom in Christ of which
Paul speaks in today’s second reading.
Each
of us is surely invited to reflect on our call to follow Jesus. For most of us, our call to be baptized into
Jesus was a call decided upon by our parents but most of us remember well the
call we received to the vocation in which we would live our discipleship. Whether we are religious, married, or single
we once said, “This is how I want to spend my life.” The call might have come early or later in
life, it might have been smooth or produced resistance in us, it might have
been like a whisper we finally recognized or it might have hit like a bolt of
lightning. The manner in which I knew
that this was how or with whom I was meant to spend my life and said “Yes,” is
very special to each person.
That
initial call to follow Jesus sets us on a path of love and service but, like
the people in the gospel, the path is unknown. In life there are many other
calls that keep us following the Lord.
Some come from the Spirit speaking to our own hearts, some come as
invitations from others - be they welcome or abrupt. Yes, the path has many twists and turns that
invite us to ask, “What are you saying Lord? What do you want?” Surely, our path of discipleship has had
great joy and deep pain. It definitely isn’t exactly a path we imagined or
planned! We may studied one thing and
done many other things, a spouse or a child may have died, I may have loved my
work but it closed or I was unexpectedly fired, a surprise phone call might
have invited me to something entirely new, my health or a disability may have
led me in a different direction…
Yes,
the call to discipleship and our willingness to “follow wherever you go” is a
true adventure and a grace-filled one at that!
As disciples, we listen to the one who calls and who guides us with love
in every moment.
Like flowing water is
a [disciple’s] heart in God’s hand;
he directs it
wherever he pleases. Proverbs 21.1
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HICKOK
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