by Fr. Tommy Lane
Excuses! That is what the Gospel today is about: making up excuses not to follow Jesus (Luke 9:51-62). Today’s excerpt begins with Jesus leaving Galilee and going to Jerusalem. Jesus was going to his passion, death, and resurrection. For most of the rest of this year we will be listening to Jesus’ teaching in Luke’s Gospel on this journey south to Jerusalem. As Jesus goes south to Jerusalem, the shortest route would be to go through Samaria. But the Samaritans did not want anything to do with Jesus because he was going to Jerusalem. Their problem was prejudice due to history. The Samaritans and the Jewish people had been enemies for many centuries due to historical reasons. Simply because Jesus was going to Jerusalem, the Samaritans did not want to welcome him. They would not accept Jesus due to events that happened long before Jesus and with which he had no involvement of any kind. The same could happen now also; people could push Jesus away because of something that someone, not Jesus, said or did.
As our Gospel excerpt today continues, we listen in on a conversation between three potential disciples and Jesus. In the conversation, Jesus speaks metaphorically to make a point: being his disciple is “serious business,” as we might say. The first potential disciple offers to follow Jesus wherever he goes, and Jesus responded that the animals and birds have their homes, but he has not. In other words, when you follow Jesus, be prepared to make some sacrifices.
Jesus called a second potential disciple, but he replied that he wanted to bury his father first and Jesus responded to let the dead bury their dead. At the literal level it doesn’t even make sense. How can the dead bury the dead? Again, Jesus is speaking metaphorically. Most understand it to mean that Jesus is saying those who make excuses not to follow him—they have to bury the dead—are spiritually dead. Let the dead bury the dead; “If you make excuses not to follow Jesus you are spiritually dead” is a common way to understand what Jesus said. Jesus says something similar in John 6: “unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you do not have life within you.” (John 6:53).
A third potential disciple offered to follow Jesus but added that first he wanted to say farewell to his family. Jesus said that once you have become his disciple you cannot take your hand off the plow. Jesus’ response is even more demanding than Elijah in our first reading (1 Kings 19) who allowed his disciple Elisha to say goodbye to his family first. In other words, being Jesus’ follower is not something from which you take a vacation; it is for life. We could put it like this: being a disciple of Jesus is not just something for the day of First Holy Communion and then rest for four years until the day of Confirmation and then rest until the day of a family funeral; being a disciple of Jesus is every day.
Today’s Gospel is about
making up excuses not to follow Jesus. The Samaritans would not
accept Jesus due to events that happened long before Jesus and with
which he had no involvement of any kind. Jesus’ conversation with
three potential disciples shows that being his follower is “serious
business” as we might say. It may involve making sacrifices, it is
for every day not just some days, and if you decline to follow Jesus
you are not alive spiritually. So, it seems to me that in today’s Gospel
Jesus is asking us advance from excuses, denials, and
rationalizations to commit to following
him fully. Praying every day is obviously a very important part of
following Jesus. Being invited by Jesus to commit ourselves to him
is great grace and joy. We know there is no greater joy than to be
fully with Jesus. As our Psalm today says,
On the first Sunday of Lent, I suggested we could see Lent as an invitation to consecrate ourselves to Jesus. In view of Jesus’ words in the Gospel today, and since this month of June is dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, I would like to conclude by reading a consecration to the Sacred Heart of Jesus associated with St. Margaret Mary who received Jesus’ revelations of the love of his Sacred Heart for us. As I read this prayer of consecration to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, I invite you to follow along and make it your own prayer and your own wish:
I give myself and consecrate to the Sacred Heart of our Lord Jesus Christ my person and my life, my actions, pains, and sufferings, so that I may be unwilling to make use of any part of my being other than to honor, love, and glorify the Sacred Heart. This is my unchanging purpose; namely, to be all His, and to do all things for the love of Him, at the same time renouncing with all my heart whatever is displeasing to Him. I therefore take You, O Sacred Heart, to be the only object of my love, the guardian of my life, my assurance of salvation, the remedy of my weakness and inconstancy, the atonement for all the faults of my life and my sure refuge at the hour of death.
Be then, O Heart of goodness, my justification before God the Father, and turn away from me the strokes of His righteous anger. O Heart of love, I put all my confidence in You, for I fear everything from my own wickedness and frailty, but I hope for all things from Your goodness and bounty.
Remove from me all that can displease You or resist Your holy will; let Your pure love imprint Your image so deeply upon my heart that I shall never be able to forget You or to be separated from You.
May I obtain from all Your loving kindness the grace of having my name written in Your Heart, for in You I desire to place all my happiness and glory, living and dying bound to You. Amen.
© Fr. Tommy Lane 2022
This homily was delivered in a parish in Ireland.
More Homilies for the Thirteenth Sunday of Year C
Jesus prayed the Psalms daily and prayer satisfies our longings
Related Homilies: Vocation: Jesus doesn’t call the ready, he calls the willing
Vocation Stories in the Bible: Answering God’s Call