COUNTING THE COST

SHARING MY SUNDAY REFLECTION:

September 8, 2013, Sunday

 Have we been doing our mathematics lately?  Today’s reading Luke 14:25-33 (22^nd Sunday in ordinary time), speaks about the cost of discipleship.  The gospel reading tells us that “great crowds of people” were following Jesus as he went on his travel.  Of course Jesus was known as prophet, a teacher, a miracle worker and a symbol of hope.  Perhaps the number of people following Jesus was motivated by various and differing motivations, but they share one common thing - the need to fill a gap or a void in their lives.  Some of these needs perhaps correspond to various levels of awareness.  I remember the oft repeated and used theory of Abraham Maslow, the hierarchy of needs.  It assumes that our behaviours are motivated by our needs and needs have gradations depending on our awareness and interests. 

I would guess that these people following Jesus were motivated by various persuasions.  Maybe, some have seen the healing miracles of Jesus and perhaps they think that with these wonder working miracles they can live happily ever after.  Perhaps some of them have seen how the Lord fed the vast crowds in Capernaum with loaves and fishes. And perhaps some of these people posses a deep-seated need to fulfil a spiritual hunger.

No doubt each and every one of us considers ourselves followers of Jesus.  We are Christians and we are Catholics.  We believe in the gospel and we go to church every Sunday.  No doubt too that we support our church with our finances and with many other things, our time and talent.  But have we done our calculations lately?  No one can assess our motives except the Lord and ourselves. 

This Sunday’s reading comes like a double bladed sword, piercing our hearts and revealing our motives.  Our Lord tells us that if we wish to follow Him we must learn to take up our cross and that anyone who cannot renounce all his possessions cannot be His disciple.  We cannot serve God and mammon.  There are three mortal temptations that lead humans to perdition, (1) the Love for Power, (2) the material needs, and (3) presumptions.   Today’s readings reveal how material wealth can be a great stumbling block to our discipleship.

The key word in this message is RENUNCIATION.  Renunciation indeed is difficult in a world whose values emphasized wealth.  Where success is measured up according to how much one has accumulated in terms of savings, investments and income.  Success too is measured according to how many people you have outwitted and outrun in a dog-eat-dog corporate world.  But the gospel of Christ calls us to renounce any form of attachment to material wealth.  No one can do this renunciation unless one sees the “pearl of great price”.  No one will persevere in this narrow way unless one sees what is stored in the end.  “No one has heard or seen what God has reserved for those that believe in him.”  But with the eyes of faith we see the glory and the reward of those who seek immortality, holiness and exaltation.  St. Thomas Aquinas, when meditating on the crucified Christ, heard him say words of wisdom.  In that glimpse or droplets of beatific vision St. Thomas realized that his works were nothing in comparison to the Wisdom and Beauty of God.  It was as if his works were trash in comparison to the Eternal Wisdom.  From then on St. Thomas stopped writing and devoted the rest of his life to contemplation. 

Our daily experiences tell us that this world is really nothing.  Our lives are short and often our efforts futile.  But why don’t we realize the vanity of all these things?  Why don’t we realize the eternal beauty of God?  And why do we cringe on the thought that we have to carry our own cross?  Oh the cross, its pain and its shame.  Are willing to bear the shame and to renounce ourselves?  May God give us the grace to see the value of His promise.  May we have the grace to see the reward and the end of our calling.  And when we see this light, may hearts be moved to aid and to help our brothers and sisters to see this light too. 

Prayer:  Lord give me the grace to see the light of your promises.  Grant me a constant heart that will not fear the shame and pains of the cross.  For without you Lord, I can do nothing and I am nothing.  Through Christ Our Lord, Amen.