It would be difficult to find a subject more suited to Christians living
in our Western democratic societies today than that which is put before us by Mother
Church in the readings we have just heard:
For freedom Christ
set us free; so stand firm and do not submit again to the yoke of slavery.
Authentic, political freedom is but the background, the setting, for the
supremely important personal freedom of mind and heart that enables us to
recognize and respond to the promptings of the Holy Spirit as He seeks to guide
us ever further along the ways of Jesus.
You were
called for freedom, brothers and sisters; do not use this freedom as an
opportunity for the flesh.
How many young people, and how many foolish older people, think that
they are asserting their freedom when they indulge their animal impulses of all
sorts against the law, against propriety, and against the many civilities which
have been found, by long experience of life in society, to be necessary if
human beings are to be able to live peaceably and profitably together? This cult of false freedom starts early in
life and grows rapidly: little boys swearing, smoking etc., bigger boys getting
drunk and being rowdy, girls trying to draw attention to themselves by either
exaggerating their physical femininity or by showing a contempt for their own
sex as they try to imitate men in their swearing, drinking, sexual licence and
general vulgarity. It goes on much
further however, and then we get into the horrors of infidelity and adultery,
drugs and prostitution, violence and murder, abortion and child abuse. These are some of the stages in a gradual and
growing madness: the abuse of freedom wherein the freedom that God meant to be
the glorious badge of human kind becomes a scourge to torment and destroy true
humanity.
Our Gospel reading offers us several examples of fettered human freedom,
featuring a much indulged, human attitude which is, deceptively, destructive of
authentic freedom, namely emotionalism:
As they were
proceeding on their journey someone said to Him “I will follow You wherever You
go."
Now notice that I am not here speaking against emotions, for they are an
essential component of human character: for without emotions we could neither
love nor commit ourselves. Emotions only
become emotionalism when they are allowed to run riot, when they try to take
over rather than follow our mind, our intelligence. Emotions are given us so that we might be
able to love what the mind recognizes as beautiful and knows to be good;
emotionalism, on the other hand, does not allow itself to be guided by the mind
at all: blind and gushing, it is both ungovernable and unreliable.
The man mentioned in our Gospel reading, seeing Jesus as He was walking
with His disciples along the road and perhaps having heard Jesus speak some
words, called out, ‘I will follow
You wherever You go’.
Jesus immediately tried to help the man appreciate the meaning of his
unthinking words:
Jesus answered
him, "Foxes have dens and birds of the sky have nests, but the Son of Man
has nowhere to rest His head."
Emotionalism is no guide to truth, and its great sin is that it tries to
pass itself of as a form of inspiration: it is a human artefact pretending to
be the work of the Spirit of Jesus within us, a shoddy imitation of what is
truly a holy calling and calm conviction.
The Gospel then paints another picture for us:
To another (Jesus)
said, "Follow Me." But he replied,
"Lord, let me go first and bury my father."
On that occasion Jesus Himself took the initiative, and when the man
Jesus knew was already able – by the grace of the Spirit – to become a
disciple of His and son of the heavenly Father, excused himself on the
basis of a human father-and-son relationship, Jesus used words of almost brutal
strength:
Jesus
answered him, "Let the dead bury their dead. But you go and proclaim the kingdom of
God."
Dear friends in Christ, Love of God takes precedence over all else; and
it can, and at times does, demand exclusive commitment, remember the boy
Jesus found after 3 days in the Temple!!
Jesus’ call, here, was such a great privilege that if refused, it neither
could nor ever would be offered again.
Finally today, we are told of another passing encounter; and notice here
that it is not Jesus who takes the initiative:
Another said,
“I will follow you, Lord, but first let me say farewell to my family at
home.”
Shallowness of character, superficiality, these again are recognizable
human traits which are, more or less, true for every human being, since we are
all weak and inclined to leisure and ease.
And yet, despite this, we are also endowed with a God-given ability to
recognize and respond to what is of God.
Here, this man himself takes the initiative, offers what was not
requested, "I will follow you, Lord", but he also wants to enjoy, he
would say for the last time, all the old associations:
but first let me say farewell to my family
at home.
This two-minded attitude -- this wanting to be with Jesus and yet
wanting to keep alive the old
attachments of life -- could lead nowhere:
(To him)
Jesus said, “No one who sets a hand to the plough and looks to what was left
behind is fit for the kingdom of God.”
People of God, let me recall Paul’s words again to mind for your
personal consideration:
For freedom
Christ set us free; so stand firm and do not submit again to the yoke of
slavery.
How free are you? Can you, will you, "stand firm" in the freedom Christ has won for us, despite all the allurements and threats of a dominant and hostile secular society, in spite of all the fears and excuses of personal self-love? Ultimately, such endurance and patience are only to be attained by following, as best one can by the grace of God, that other piece of advice given us by St. Paul: Walk by the Spirit.
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