Twenty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time
By Rev. Joe McCloskey, SJ
For what man knows God's counsel, or who can conceive what our LORD intends? For the deliberations of mortals are timid, and unsure are our plans. For the corruptible body burdens the soul and the earthen shelter weighs down the mind that has many concerns. And scarce do we guess the things on earth, and what is within our grasp we find with difficulty; but when things are in heaven, who can search them out? Wisdom 9:13-16
“I should have liked to retain him for myself, so that he might serve me on your behalf in my imprisonment for the gospel, but I did not want to do anything without your consent, so that the good you do might not be forced but voluntary. Perhaps this is why he was away from you for a while, that you might have him back forever, no longer as a slave but more than a slave, a brother, beloved especially to me, but even more so to you, as a man and in the Lord.” Philemon 13-16
"If any one comes to me without hating his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. Which of you wishing to construct a tower does not first sit down and calculate the cost to see if there is enough for its completion? Luke 14:26-28
Piety
“Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.” The invitation to discipleship has its loudest expression in the crosses we carry in the name of Jesus. The hurts, the pains and the brokenness of lives around us can make our crosses seem light. Following Christ and closeness to his cross are one and the same in the Spiritual journey. What is the something that I am putting before Christ in my life? Busy at something and making time for an interruption hardly seems a cross. But people come before things in our following of Christ. How I make space for the least person who comes into my life is where I see closeness to Christ at work. We are all called to treat the least person in our lives as Christ. He brings us to the truth of love of our neighbor as the true self love. We are called to be brothers and sisters of each other. We have a great work to accomplish in our lives which is the spreading of the kingdom of God. Christ tells us that anyone who does not renounce all his possessions cannot be his disciple. He calls us into the intimacy of his life. He asks us to value our closeness to Christ more than anything else in our lives. He gives us the chance to find him in all things.
Study
We need to look closely at where we spend our time and our money. What are the things that I value in life more than the chance to serve Christ’s mission. The examination of the things that I am doing each day to be closer to Christ is one of the most important studies of life. There are problems in our world that we avoid because they interfere with our comfort zones. How true it is that the work of the Lord needs prayer, fasting and good works that we may ring true in his plan. When am I with another for reasons other than their good? I must do something about laziness in my life if I truly am going to be a servant of the Lord. I must discover what I value more than Christ in my life. I must study who is taking the place of Christ. Am I searching for Christ in all the companions of my life? Saints are transparencies of Christ. Sinfulness can cloud the life of Christ within us. I must love the Lord my God with my entire mind, my heart and my soul. Study gives us the chance to find more of Christ in each other.
Action
We must make Christ all in all. The efforts to serve Christ in each moment of our lives will turn us into true lovers of each other. It is the cross of Christ that distances us from anything that separates us from Christ. Paul gives us a wonderful example in sending Onesimus back to be with the one Onesimus owed service to. Paul gives us the example of making all those around us free to do what God expects of them. We are partners of Christ when we honor the freedom of each other. We give Christ reign in our hearts when we work as beloved brothers and sisters of each other. We work out God’s plan in our lives with difficulty. The difficulties are the cross of Christ which is redemptive for those we offer our work up for. We might not be called to be prisoners for Christ. But we should be prisoners of our love for the good of each other. When we invite Christ into our lives, he sends the Spirit that we can search out what the plan of God is for us and thus find our paths on earth made straight.
