Sermon thoughts – 13th Sunday Ordinary time – Year C
We want a secure life and a secure world. Therefore, we have so many insurances: life insurance, Health insurance, insurance for our car, home insurance … and more … Without a password, we won’t get our emails! I remember: Just before some years, the front doors of our homes were not closed, at least during the day. But now we have to close them all … Our airports, railway stations … everywhere we are monitored.
Security … yes, this is a big issue of our time …
Today’s readings are all about ‘calling’. But in the background we can still observe the ‘security-efforts’ of some called.
The first reading: Elijah calls Elisha. It is God who states that Elisha will be in place of the prophet Elijah. Elijah saw the industrious Man Elisha plowing with 12 yoke of oxen. It is interesting; Elijah does not speak a word. He threw his cloak over Elisha. A sign: cloak, stands for protection. ‘God’s protection over me’- Elisha recognizes this sign immediately. He understands his work is now for the kingdom of God, and the filed is the hearts of men. And God is there for his protection.
In the Gospel we see, Jesus ‘homeless’. He had a bitter experience in a Samaritan village. Jesus knew that is included in his life. But the disciples want Jesus to destroy the village. But he ‘turned and rebuked them’. Jesus does not destroy, but protects. Destruction and death- he fought against them. Life is the central message of Jesus.
What we hear further in the Gospel, can be interpreted in this context. The first one comes and wants to follow Jesus. Does he think to follow Jesus is easy? A life without trouble? We do not know exactly. Anyway, Jesus responds by experience what he has just experienced in the Samaritan village. The Son of Man has no shelter, no security. Yes, to follow Jesus means live with some uncertainty.
To the Second said Jesus “follow me”. But he wants his parents buried. But are they alive or just dead? Jesus has to wait for him?
Apropos, waiting? It has no place in the “call”. Abraham, Moses, Elisha, Mary, Peter and John…all of them answer God’s call plenty fast.
Here Jesus seems to be rigid: the man has to proclaim the glad news of God. He should proclaim life. It is God instructing him to do so.
The Third Man seems to me a combination of first and 2. He wants to follow Jesus, but first of all he wants to say bye to his family. He himself took the decision to follow Jesus, though, some matters prevent him…
‘Call’ should have decisiveness. Remaining in the matter is important. Jesus is usually ‘on the way’. It is an attitude: One must be going…. ‘He can not remain inactive’. Abraham, Moses, and Mary… a few examples: they were in motion, to move the hearts of men. Their goal of course is God.
This motion can be insecure from time to time. But trust in God is the strength. Jesus never seeks his own security. On the contrary he often goes through many risky ways. It is love leads him to do so. The freedom that Paul mentions in the letter to the Galatians, must be understood in this context. A freedom, not in the sense of the world, ‘rather, serves one another through love’. I am called for others. I have to convey God’s protection and life through my words and life. It was the way of Jesus.
But again and again, the mentality of the disciples towards the Samaritans, revisit us.
My safety, my advantage, my opinion… I am becoming the centre of my world.
As I often say such attitudes make our preaching, our faith ridiculous and implausible. We know it’s only a minority, but that is an important weapon for the opponents of the Church…
Not only the Pope, bishops, priests and nuns…, all of us are called. All have to fulfil their own task on their own way.
And Jesus admonishes us to respect this great responsibility.
The safety and freedom that Jesus promises us are different than we experience in normal life. But they are lasting.
Are we deciding today for our God, his freedom and his ‘security’?
May God bless us to do so. Amen!
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Fr Thomas Kalathil
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