FR. OLMAN’S HOMILY

09/09/2007

TWENTY THIRD SUNDAY ORDINARY TIME

Jesus says in the Gospel today: “Whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother and wife and children, brothers and sisters, and even life itself cannot be my disciple”.  In Hebrew the phrase “too hate” means to love less.  The Lord means to tell us that we must love our own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters and even our own life less than we love Jesus.  Or to put it in another way, we must love Jesus more than we love our father and mother and relatives and ourselves.

“Christ is the center of all Christian life.  The bond with him takes precedence over all other bonds, familial or social.  From the very beginning of the Church there have been men and women who have renounced the great good of marriage to follow the renounced the great good of marriage to follow the Lamb wherever he goes, to be intent on the things of the Lord, to seek to please him, and to go out t to meet the Bridegroom who is coming”  It happens at times that a boy falls in love with a girl.  Even if the parents are opposed to the marriage between the boy and girl they marry.

We must love Jesus even more than we love our own life.  This is what the martyrs did.  They placed their whole trust in Christ.  In him they found the courage to put God above all, in life and in death, to love him above all else.  They considered it a singular honor to die for Christ.  The Lord created us.  He redeemed us with his own blood.  He restored us to everlasting life.  He made us heirs of the kingdom of God.  Therefore he has claims over us which no one else has.  When a choice has to be made between love of God and love of our father, mother, wife, children, there is no other option than to choose God.

The Lord continues saying “Whoever does not carry the cross and follow me, cannot be my disciple”.  It means that first of all we shall have crosses.  The Lord does not promise his followers wealth, honor, glory, power, etc; in this world. We will have our difficulties, trials, temptations and sufferings.  We must bear them patiently for love of Jesus Christ.

Building a tower, going to war, are serious affairs.  But it is far more serious to become a disciple of Jesus Christ.  Once we have decided to follow him, we should not give up.  If the work we are doing is of God, prayer is indispensable.  We must carry it out in accordance with this inspiration, and hence with his Holy Spirit, not in accordance with our own feelings.  We must draw on sources which are other than those from which the world seeks to draw its power. We must find our strength in the grace of God.  Our methods must be inspired by evangelical love.  Our work regards conversion of persons.  Only the Spirit of God can make people aware of sin, and give the desire to abandon sin.  He alone leads to faith and reconci9liation with God and man.  God alone can awaken an interior attraction. In the same way, only grace furthers the work of communion which we wish to achieve in the Church for what is fundamentally at stake in communion with God, through Jesus Christ in the Holy Spirit.  It is obvious that only grace leads to holiness.

We must be wise.  The first reading told about that.  The author of the Book of Wisdom was grateful even for the limited knowledge the people of the Old Testament had.  How much more grateful should we be to God who have the full revelation in Jesus.