13th Sunday Year C 2022

 

13^th. SUNDAY of the Year C

(I Kings 19:16, 19-21; Galatians 5:1, 13-18; St Luke’s Gospel 9:51-62)

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Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, we have something about the nature of an authentic Christian vocation in our Gospel reading today, something we need to think about and try to learn from.

First of all, we heard that the Sons of Thunder, James and John, on hearing that the Samaritans of a village they were approaching would not welcome Jesus destined for Jerusalem, wanted to call down fire from heaven to consume them, but:

            Jesus turned and rebuked them, and they journeyed to another village.         

Jesus had called the two sons of Zebedee, fellow-fishermen with Peter and Andrew, but at the present He was having to be very patient with them because their natural impulsiveness and decisiveness needed to be firmly tempered and gradually reformed for Jesus’ own purposes but, most certainly, without being crushed.

As they proceeded on their journey someone said to Jesus:

            I will follow You wherever You go!

And Jesus answered him:

Foxes have dens and birds of the sky have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to rest His head.   

Those were words of enlightenment so that the enthusiastic young man could make a better judgement of what he wanted for his future.  Nothing further is heard of him in the Gospel.

However, there is another man they met, and Jesus said, as soon as He saw him it would seem:  Follow Me.

Obviously, Jesus saw something very good in him; something we can only try our best to fathom out what it might have been.

The Gospel goes on and tells us that the young man heard and understood what Jesus had said to him:

            But he replied, ‘Lord, let me go first and bury my father’.

Notice that he answers Jesus immediately as ‘Lord’; from that call of Jesus, the young man knew Jesus as his ‘Lord’.  Others will say ‘I will follow You Lord, but …’   This one, chosen and called by Jesus, says first of all ‘Lord’.

He then went on to ask, as you have just heard, ‘let me go first and bury my father’.

First of all, wanted to do what he considered an important duty, that is, as son, to bury his father.  Now, Jesus above all loved His Father, and that surely made the young man’s request echo deeply in Jesus’ own heart. 

But that was by no means all.  Jesus knew intimately the prophets of Israel, the great ones who foretold of His coming and destiny but also those nearer to His day who spoke of the times He might well experience Personally, and one of them, Malachi, had these words about times soon to come (Malachi 4: 5-6):

Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and terrible day of the Lord comes.  And he will turn the hearts of fathers to their sons and the hearts of sons to their fathers, lest I come and smite the land with a curse.

We are well aware that Jesus knew that passage from the prophet, because He told His questioning disciples that John the Baptist had been the Elijah mentioned by the prophet; and now, here before Him at this very moment, was a young man whose heart was indeed being turned to his father, asking Jesus that he might go and fulfil his duty to his recently deceased father.

But there is something yet more, something much more mysterious, for Jesus – giving the permission requested of Him – said:

            Let the dead bury their dead.  But you, go and proclaim the Kingdom of God.

You, young man, whom I have just called to follow Me and who have, indeed, recognized Me as your Lord, you are not one of the dead whom I tell you to let them bury their dead: I have just chosen you because My Father has already chosen you for Me, therefore, I tell you:

            YOU, go and proclaim the Kingdom of God.

Now, we know from the Gospel that Jesus proclaimed the Kingdom of God from the very beginning of His public ministry exclusively, save for the Twelve alone whom:

He (once) called together and gave them power and authority over all demons, and to cure diseases.  He sent them to preach the kingdom of God and to heal the sick. (Luke 9:1-2)

We hear no more of that very special young man chosen by Jesus, save that Jesus did Himself say later:

The law and the prophets lasted until John; but from then on, the kingdom of God is proclaimed, and everyone who enters does so with violence. (16:16)

Dear People of God, be well aware that the Father can call, speak to, souls before the call of Jesus reaches them, or sounds meaningfully in their minds and hearts, but that prevenient call of the Father always urges towards Jesus Who most assuredly knows who is being thus sent to Him by the Father,, and why.

We have yet another possible-vocation who said to Jesus in the Gospel today:

I will follow you, Lord, but first let me say farewell to my family at home. 

He says he will follow, but first ….

Jesus, for him will be Lord, when … 

Moreover, he requests the opportunity to do not an important duty so much as an emotional leave-taking of family and, most probably, friends at home; which in no way relates to an immediate and life-changing vocational opportunity from God.

             

(To him) Jesus said, “No one who sets a hand to the plow and looks to what was left behind is fit for the kingdom of God.” (Luke 9:62)

 

Dear friends of Jesus in Mother Church, so much is done these days in response to people, so little in response to Jesus. People at the best can be ministers, guides, helpers, even a few can be authorities in the way of Jesus … but not to the extent of being reverenced, ‘worshipped’, as the nearest to Jesus for us here on earth.

Jesus is our all and He is ‘available’ to us, and for us, here on earth: we have His Spouse, His infallible Church, our Mother, in which His most Holy Spirit abides; and we have Jesus’ own real, sacramental Presence – His very Body and Blood – in Mother Church’s sacrifice of Holy Mass.

Jesus’ Holy Spirit abides in no individual person however holy … and that means that no individual whomsoever can stand-in for Jesus in our soul and conscience.  Jesus alone merits our all, and that is, in Him and with Him, for the Father’s glory in heaven and His will on earth.

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, what a privilege it is for us to be disciples of Jesus, sons and daughters of Mother Church, moved by the most Holy Spirit to walk along the ways of Jesus, outlined for us by Mother Church and her Scriptures, in the hope and anticipation of finding our ultimate home in heaven, celebrating our Father’s feast of love, gratitude, and thanksgiving.

 

(2022)

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

62 (To him) Jesus said, “No one who sets a hand to the plow and looks to what was left behind is fit for the kingdom of God.” Luke 9:61–62 (NAB)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Malachi 4:5-6 (NAB)

Now I am sending to you Elijah, the prophet.  Before the day of the LORD comes,  the great and terrible day; He will turn the hearts of fathers to their sons, and the hearts of sons to their fathers, lest I come and strike the land with utter destruction.