Don. J.B Nyamunga, ssa
1st Reading wisdom 9:13-18 : Who can imagine what the Lord wants?
2nd Reading Philemon 1, 9-10.12-17: Receive him not as a slave but a dear brother
Gospel: Lk 14:25-33: He who doesn’t renounce his belongings is not worthy to be called my disciple.
Not being? … follower/crowd? But disciples of Jesus in Discernment.
The Gospel of this Sunday starts by stating thus ... “And now great crowds traveled with him. And turning around, he said to them” (Lk 14:25a). But the question we have to confront today is. Do we know what it means to follow Jesus? It’s easy to walk behind Jesus with the great crowd, but imagine a crowd that doesn’t think or discern? Put yourself in that big crowd of followers.
To be a follower of Christ is being catholic by tradition, that celebrates the sacraments, from the beginning as a Christian in a given Christian community, it means professing the faith in the Holy Trinity, in the church, in communion of the saints, in the forgiveness of sins, in the resurrection of the body, in the life eternal, and daily committing your living a life that looks into your interior life, not spending a lot of energy in securing wealth and possession but concentrating on the well-being of the family and consolidating the sense of belonging to the family and how you treat your family and dearly investing in the wealth of relationship, love, tenderness and hospitality.
Jesus turns back to the crowd to ask them... each one of has to be in the crowd fully aware of why he/she is in the crowd that is following Jesus. This is what has come to be called DISCERNMENT in most church circles today. What does it mean to discern? It means to have full knowledge, experience, emotion and will to be aware of what you are doing, and why are you doing what you are doing? Planning, measuring one’s proper energy. Our challenges are usually more than we can handle, when they start flooding into our lives we are always overwhelmed and they get us unawares, our bodies with little immunity to resist the force and we find that we become vulnerable to any attack. Every day we are will find ourselves confronted with our human weaknesses, fragility and human limitlessness.
Jesus confronts his readers in the gospel this Sunday with an example of construction in mind. Who among us will not start by putting everything in place before he starts to construct? Sometimes most of us find ourselves in the rush of life. We meet obstacles and people in life that put us off the thinking rail due to our overwhelmed and beaten by life expectations and anxieties. Jesus reminds us that before going for war count how many soldiers you have lest you are defeated and run over. “For whom among you, wanting to build a tower, would not first sit down and determine the costs that are required, to see if he has the means to complete it? (Lk 14:28-31).
Discernment is about accepting one’s limitations. The book of Wisdom it brings out this clear by taking us back to King Solomon who lived in a new reality of kingship, he had everything as king (Wis 9:14-16). “For the thoughts of mortals are timid, and our foresight is uncertain. For the corruptible body weighs down the soul, and this is earthly dwelling presses many thoughts upon the mind. And we assess with difficulty the things that are of earth, and we discover with labor the things that are within our view. So who will search out the things that are in the heavens. The risk of or humanness which we also read in Psalm 89:10. “The days of our years in them are seventy years. But in the powerful, they are eighty years, and more of those are with hardship and sorrow. For mildness has overwhelmed us, and we shall be corrected”. The years of our life pass…
That means that we have to walk with God who knows our weaknesses, pains, limitlessness and who created us and who sanctifies us daily in finding his will in our lives. We are to ask God what do you want in our life? Wisdom 9:17) “ Moreover who will know your mind, unless you give wisdom and send you holy spirit from on high?” The desire to walk with Him in communion, imploring him for the gift of wisdom and Holy Spirit. (Psalm 8:13-14,17a)
“So does he make known to us the mystery of his will, which he has set forth in Christ in a manner well pleasing to him. In the dispensation of the fullness of time, so as to renew in Christ everything that exists through him in heaven and on earth”. (Eph 1:9-10)… “But we have not received the spirit of this world, but the Spirit who is of God, so that we may understand the things that have been given to us by God”. 1Cor 2:12). This calls for each committed Christian to enter into self evaluation and discernment...
“Denying ourselves for the kingdom…If anyone comes to me and does not hate his, and mother, and sisters, and teas, even his own life, he is not able to be my disciple…Therefore, every one of you who does not renounce all that he possesses is not able to be my disciple” (Lk 14:26,33). Everything that will come before us will have to bring us closer to God, in actions and deeds because: “For you are all sons of God, through the faith which is in the Christ Jesus. For as many of you as have been baptized in Christ have become clothed with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Gentile; there is neither servant nor free; there is neither male nor female. For you are all one in Christ Jesus”. Gal 3:26-28). To fail in this examination means that we are simply Christians by name not by calling and commitment. “And whoever does not bear his cross and come after me, is not able to be my disciple”. Lk 14:27
