The Twenty Third Sunday In Ordinary Time Year C.

Readings

Wisdom 9: 13-18
Philemon 9-10, 12-17
Luke 14: 25

Theme: As we sweat to attain material wealth and earthly comfort, so must we labour to obtain the state of a true disciple of Christ God’s wisdom.

In the first place, let us be humble and accept that unless God sends his Holy Spirit from on High, no one can attain the Wisdom of God or learn God’s counsel by mere human effort!

In order to achieve our earthly endeavours and comforts, we work hard to bring up our children, struggle in offices, academics,  digging to get food, making journeys to trade, selling and buying etc…  There are also moments when we are emotionally engaged and work hard to balance our physical life with the psychological life.  However, regarding our Spiritual well-being, the Book of Wisdom in our First Reading today calls our attention to a greater reality that cannot be attained by human efforts alone: it says that “the reasoning of mortals is worthless, and our designs are likely to fail, for a perishable body weighs down the soul and this earthly tent burdens the thoughtful mind.  What man can learn the counsel of God or who has traced out what is in the heavens unless You (God) have given Wisdom and sent your Holy Spirit from on high?”

This is the gist of the matter, that we have to labour hard to access the wisdom of God. 

It is what Christ is emphasizing in the Gospel Reading of this Sunday: To follow Christ, one has to surrender totally.  To access the Wisdom of God which is Christ Himself, one must sweat much through sacrifice and commitment.  The images that Jesus uses to describe their sweat cannot be grasped easily by the human intellect!

Look at the images Jesus portrays: “If any one comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers, and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be My disciple.”

How much effort must one put in to obtain the status of a disciple?  It is important to notice that the way to Heaven or to Holiness is of much sweat also.   It is a way of total surrender that unless one renounces all that he has, one cannot be Christ’s disciple!  He /she has to aim very high.  This is equivalent to shedding one’s blood – it is martyrdom- it is death following the example of Christ.

The Letter to Philemon is our Second Reading is a good example of surrendering our emotions for the sake of nurturing Christ’s invitation to Holiness.  That Philemon should receive Onesimus back not as a slave but as a beloved brother.

Philemon had to have his attitude transformed and surrender to his former slave as brother in Christ.

Such decisions require the assistance of the Wisdom of God and the Holy Spirit.

Msgr. Gerard Kalumba
Christ the King, Parish Kampala