What does it mean to be a Disciple of Christ
Homily: 13th Sunday in Ordinary Time
1st Reading: 2 Kings 4: 8-11, 14-16 – Elisha gives hope to the barren woman of Shunem
2nd Reading: Romans 6: 3-4, 8-11 – think of yourselves as dead to sin & living for God
Gospel: Matthew 10: 37-42 –whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me
“The Christian does not think God will love us because we are good, but rather that God will make us good because He loves us.” – C. S. Lewis
Today’s readings challenge us to reflect yet again on what it means to be a disciple of Jesus Christ and to place God above everything else in our life. And the challenge to be a disciple of Christ is not simply one of the will where we choose to follow Christ and everything is fine from then on. Because whether we like it or not, we must accept the fact that there is an evil which seeks to separate us from God’s love and convince us that that God’s love is conditional; that he will only love us if we are good. And this is a misconception that Jesus came to dispel. Jesus did not place conditions on His love for others. It was up to each person to accept his invitation, his message, his love. This was the choice of anyone who wanted to be His disciple. Now having said this, there are still misconceptions about what it means to be a disciple.
You see to be a disciple in the time of Jesus was not to be a groupie who just followed a popular person around because they wanted to be seen with him. The Apostles and disciples of Jesus were not his posse. In those days, to be a disciple of a teacher, rabbi, or holy man meant that the disciple must take on the mind and the heart of the one he/she followed and to live and act as their Master did. So being a disciple of Christ meant accepting God’s love by taking on the mind and heart of Jesus; that is the mind and heart of God. And as is with most things in life, this is easier said than done.
The events of the last few weeks, beginning with the killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis policeman, and the protests and violence that followed, caused me to reflect back to 1968. I was 15 years old when Martin Luther King was assassinated, and I remember watching the rioting and looting of L.A., Washington D.C., and other cities on TV. I also remember my father & I driving through Washington, DC while the protests and riots were still going on. And the thing I remember feeling confused about was the actions of the rioters. I remember being confused about how the rioters could think that looting, killing and destroying their neighborhood was a justifiable response to the death of a man who spent his life preaching that peace and non-violence was the only way of solving issues of injustice, racial or otherwise. It didn’t make sense to me, that they could be true followers of this man. How could they use the very means he spoke against to express their anger, fear, and disappointment. Had they forgotten his words? Did they really not agree with what he stood for? Had they given themselves over to feelings of despair? It seems they had not taken on the mind and heart of the one they seemed to have so admired.
And in reflecting on what is going on in our country right now, as well as the events of 52 years ago, I thought about the Apostles and disciples of Jesus who scattered when He was arrested and crucified. They hid out in the upper room and waited. They needed that time to reflect not just on the last 36 hours or so, but on what they had heard and seen over the last 3 years as they followed their Master. The words He had spoken, the things he had done. They needed that time to remember all He had told them, and taught them. But imagine what would have happened, if they had let their fear, their anger, their feelings of disappointment drive them to a different course of action? What if they had set aside or even forgotten the words and the teachings of their Lord, and took a different action? Imagine if Peter had sent word out to the zealots and other followers, that Jesus’ brutal torture and death would not go unanswered. What if the followers of Jesus had risen up and responded to the Romans and maybe even the Jewish Sanhedrin with violence? Not only would such actions been unwise not to mention dangerous, they would have invalidated everything Jesus had said and done, and it is very likely the Church would never have gotten off the ground.
Jesus is telling us today that to be his follower; that is that to be worthy of Him, we must set ourselves apart from what the world would have us do. All that Jesus said and modeled for us did not become invalid because he underwent suffering and death. He told his Apostles and disciples everything that would happen to him before it happened. He knew the human heart, and He knew the weakness of the human spirit. But despite knowing this, his message remained the same even to the point of forgiving those that tortured Him and put him to death. Being a disciple of Jesus is not an easy road to walk. And today we hear him use some pretty challenging language. He’s telling us that to be his disciple means we have to buy in totally to his teaching. We must love him, which means loving God over everything and everyone else including our parents, our wives, our siblings. And many have wrestled with this teaching because what they think or what they hear Jesus saying is not to love and honor our parents which goes directly against the 4th commandment. But that is not what He’s saying at all. In fact, there is a reason why the commandment to honor our Father and Mother is the 4th commandment and not the 1st. You see the 1st three commandments address how we are to love and reverence God. If we fail at these three, we will find it difficult to obey the other seven which teach us about how to relate to and love our parents, our neighbor, everyone. What Jesus is telling us today is that the only way to truly love our families, our friends, and the stranger is to love God first. And we are seeing the effect on our country when people don’t accept His words. We see the effect on our county when God is banished from everywhere but our homes, and even there God is coming under attack. The result is people don’t know how to love as God loves because they’ve lost touch with the one who loves them. No matter who we are or what our state in life is, we’re called to be loving in the same way that God loves us. Whether rich or poor, regardless of race or ethnic origin, we are all are called to love as God loves.
In the first reading we hear of the woman of Shunem who showed hospitality and care to Elisha the prophet. It says she was a woman of influence which can be interpreted as she was wealthy. We also hear that she was an older woman who had not been able to give birth to a child. And yet despite this void in her life she she does not curse or turn away from God. Instead she recognizes Elisha as a holy man, one who is close to God, one who spoke for God, and she opens her home and her table to him whenever he came to town. Despite her life experiences, she still chose to show reverence for God and for God’s messenger. She did not turn away from God because life was unfair to her.
This is the choice we all have to make. It is what St. Paul is trying to tell us in today’s 2nd reading. If we are to live out our baptismal call as disciples of Jesus, we must turn away from sin and turn toward God and live for Him. It means he must be 1st in our life. Living as a disciple of Christ means to love as Christ loves and to follow His example of how to love others. Living as a disciple of Christ means taking His words and his life to heart and living our lives according to those words and example. But this is not what the world would tell you. It is counter-cultural to think that I should not respond with divisive language, anger, and violence when I have been wronged. But this is what being a disciple of Jesus requires. And if you think about it, in almost every age, to be a disciple of Jesus required going against the cultural norms.
We’re living in very difficult times. We are suffering the effects of failed leadership at all levels. Those we entrusted with the responsibility to care for us have acted irresponsibly by their behavior. By their divisive language and actions they have given license to speak and act in a divisive way to the people they’re supposed to serve.. By their words and actions they have validated the behavior we are seeing in our streets. They have assigned people the right to do harm to their brothers and sisters. We are in a cycle of anger and violence that must be broken and the only answer is to live out the Gospel of Jesus. The only answer is for those who claim to be Christians, to act like Christians are supposed to act. There are too many Christians and Catholics who are having a hard time with this. The events in our country and in our world, have so consumed them, that they have lost their joy, they have lost their peace. And so they justify using divisive language and actions as a right response to injustice. But in doing so they contribute to the lack of joy and peace in our country. And the only way to get back that peace and joy is to make the Lord first in our lives and by loving God more than anything else. Now this doesn’t mean we won’t experience rough times, but if we are truly trusting in God and seeking his guidance in all of these situations, He will give us the peace to know we are doing the right thing when we are doing it.
But when we put God on a shelf; when we try to take matters into our own hands even in the name of justice; without God as the focus of our life, we will fail at whatever we do and we will lack the peace we so desire.
The problems we face as a country will not begin to subside until all who claim to be Christian disciples of Christ, take on the mind and the heart of Jesus and respond as He would respond instead of how we think He should respond.
