Wednesday in the 26th Week of Ordinary Time, October 4, 2023

Luke 9, 57-62

As Jesus and his disciples were proceeding on their journey, someone said to him, “I will follow you wherever you go.” Jesus answered him, “Foxes have dens and birds of the sky have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to rest his head.” And to another he said, “Follow me.” But he replied, “Lord, let me go first and bury my father.” But he answered him, “Let the dead bury their dead. But you, go and proclaim the Kingdom of God.” And another said, “I will follow you, Lord, but first let me say farewell to my family at home.” Jesus answered him, “No one who sets a hand to the plow and looks to what was left behind is fit for the Kingdom of God.”

What would we do if we were first century Galilean men and women, listening to Jesus of Nazareth preach and watching him perform miracles, and he turned to us and said, “Follow me?”  We know what Peter, Andrew, James, John, Matthew, and the other Apostles did.  But if we were in the place of these men when the Lord called, what would we do?

In the today’s Gospel reading, we see how different people had the opportunity to closely follow the Lord Jesus, and chose not to do so, or announced that they would only follow him on their terms.  

“As Jesus and his disciples were proceeding on their journey.”  According to St. Luke’s chronology, Jesus is leading his disciples to Jerusalem, where he will be killed.  The fact that a man declares, “I will follow you wherever you go”, tells us that he has not considered very deeply what following the Lord may mean.  Therefore, the Lord replies to him, “Foxes have dens and birds of the sky have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to rest his head.”. That is to say, Even now conditions for me and my disciples are hard; what will it be like when there is tribulation?  St. Alphonsus Liguori interpreted this answer of Jesus to refer to his crucifixion, when he would literally have no place for his head.

“And to another he said, ‘Follow me.’ ”  (It is not clear when this next calling occurs.  It seems unlikely to come directly after the first one).  These are the words of invitation or even of command which the Apostles heard and which they obeyed.  As a result they spent nearly every day and night for three years with the Son of God.  What price would we pay for a chance like that?  People spend much money visiting faraway places to gaze at ancient ruins or magnificent scenery, or to receive an education or at a world class university.  Would it not be worth selling everything we have to spend three years in the intimate company of the God who came to earth?  But what does this man, afforded the opportunity of his lifetime, do? He says, “Lord, let me go first and bury my father.”  He as much as says, I will come after you, but only when I am good and ready.  Now, the man’s father is not dead.  When a Jew died in the days of Jesus, according to the law, he had to be buried before sundown.  Jesus is meeting this man either on the open road or in a town, but if the man’s father had just died, he would be in the house mourning and preparing for the burial.  The man wants to stay with his family until his father does die, and then he will follow Jesus.  This reveals a complacency or even cowardice that does not belong in a believer.  

“Let the dead bury their dead. But you, go and proclaim the Kingdom of God.”  Those who live preach the kingdom of God.  All others are “dead”, “For to me, to live is Christ: and to die is gain.” (Philippians 1, 21), and “Amen, amen, I say unto you: except you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you shall not have life in you” (John 6, 54). 

“I will follow you, Lord, but first let me say farewell to my family at home.”  We recall how Peter and Andrew, James and John, and Matthew were called in the very midst of their work with their hands full of fishing nets and coins owed to the king.  They could have pleaded for time to make an end of their business and then to follow him on the spot, but they got up at once and left everything.  In this regard also recall our Lord’s words: “He that loves father or mother more than me, is not worthy of me; and he that loves son or daughter more than me, is not worthy of me.”  The Lord must come first in our lives.  Jesus answers the man, “No one who sets a hand to the plow and looks to what was left behind is fit for the Kingdom of God.”  When we look back, we feel and false nostalgia and are distracted from the urgent work the Lord has for us,  in the case of plowing, to take one eye off the track the plow is making for a split second is to go awry.  We must hasten to plow and to plant while we can because the harvester is close behind us: “Surely I am coming soon!” (Revelation 21, 20).

Today the Holy Church celebrates St. Francis of Assisi (d. 1226).  During a time and at a place where material prosperity was spreading and a certain secular outlook went along with it, St. Francis reminded the world of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God who wrapped himself in our humanity.  Many who saw his face felt that they were looking at the face of Christ, for Francis closely imitated his humility and his poverty.  God gives us saints partly for this reason, so that we may see his Son reflected in the life of another.  Let us who honor St. Francis today imitate the Lord as he did.  We see that it is not too hard, for the saints, preeminently St. Francis model this for us.