Wednesday in the 31st Week of Ordinary Time, November 8, 2023

Luke 14, 25-33

Great crowds were traveling with Jesus, and he turned and addressed them, “If anyone comes to me without hating his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. Which of you wishing to construct a tower does not first sit down and calculate the cost to see if there is enough for its completion? Otherwise, after laying the foundation and finding himself unable to finish the work the onlookers should laugh at him and say, ‘This one began to build but did not have the resources to finish.’ Or what king marching into battle would not first sit down and decide whether with ten thousand troops he can successfully oppose another king advancing upon him with twenty thousand troops? But if not, while he is still far away, he will send a delegation to ask for peace terms. In the same way, everyone of you who does not renounce all his possessions cannot be my disciple.”

“Great crowds were traveling with Jesus.”  The Lord is on the road again to Jerusalem where he will offer his life for us on the Cross.  These great crowds are traveling with him, that is, accompanying him and not simply traveling to Jerusalem in his proximity.  They have heard him preach and many have seen his miracles.  They think he is the Messiah who will free Israel from Roman rule beginning on Jerusalem and they want to support him in this.  They follow him, and yet they do not follow him.  In today’s Gospel Reading the Lord explains what he expects from his true followers — a great deal more than any mere human could demand and more than the casual followers would be willing to give.

“If anyone comes to me without hating his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.”  The Greek word is very strong here: “hating”, “detesting”.  Jesus is making a demand that only God can make.  He is saying that people naturally love their family, friends, and relatives, and themselves most of all.  But he, Jesus Christ, must come first.  It is a matter of priorities.  Doing the will of Jesus goes before anything we might do for any of the mere humans in our lives.  If he tells us to leave our families and become a cloistered religious, then considerations of family and of one’s previous ambitions and plans fall by the wayside.  If he sets forth a moral commandment which is hard to follow because doing so will make is us pariahs in society, we obey the commandment anyway.  Jesus takes precedence.  We take care of family members and friends, but we do this in accord with the Lord’s will.  We do this because we know that he is God.  He knows all things and can do all things.  We trust him that all will be well when we do his will.  He himself gives us the perfect model of obedience to the divine will in being made incarnate and suffering and dying for us.  He also gives the grace so that we can follow him in this complete way.

“Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.”  As difficult as it is to hear his first words, these are starker.  It is not enough to die for him him but to die in this way.  The cross that each of us carry is the cross of obedience to the divine will in imitation of the Lord Jesus, accepting whatever death he wills for us.  This requires absolute abandonment to God’s will and abandonment of ours.  But in this way we conform ourselves to him so that when the Father looks at us he sees his Son.  

“Which of you wishing to construct a tower does not first sit down and calculate the cost to see if there is enough for its completion?”  The Lord Jesus warns the crowds who follow him so eagerly that their faith may not be sufficient to see them through what is about to happen to him, and then to see them through the persecutions that will arise after his Resurrection.  “Sit down and calculate the cost to see if there is enough for its completion.”  He does not seek to frighten anyone off, but for everyone who wants to be his disciple to take very seriously what they are doing and to realize that without the help of God’s grace they cannot do this.  Seeing that there is not enough for the tower’s completion, that is, living out the Faith, we pray for grace.

“But if not, while he is still far away, he will send a delegation to ask for peace terms.”  This fight is with the devil.  We cannot defeat him on our own but only with the help of God.  If we are not going to pray for this help then we surrender to the devil and he makes us his slaves.

“In the same way, everyone of you who does not renounce all his possessions cannot be my disciple.”  Prayer is essential, and the renunciation of possessions fuels prayer, as it were.  This is because, having nothing, we belong to God alone, and he will act as though he belonged to us alone.  We should note here that the Lord does not insist on the selling of possessions, placing ourselves in a destitute position.  St, Paul elaborates on this for us: “It remains that they also who have wives be as if they had none; and they who weep, as though they wept not; and those who rejoice, as if they rejoiced not; and those who buy as if they possessed not; and those who use this world, as if they used it not” (1 Corinthians 7:29–31).

The demands that the Lord makes on those who would follow him sound harsh, as if calculated to evoke the protest, “This saying is hard; and who can hear it?” (John 6, 61).  In truth, his demands liberate us from the enslaving demands of this world, which also require absolute obedience but which promise nothing that lasts.  For those who give up their lives to follow Jesus build a tower that will never crumble and win a victory that will end all war forever.