Twenty-third Sunday of Ordinary Time
Feast of the nativity of Mary, mother of the Lord. Today the Franciscan tradition remembers Francis' visit of peace to Damietta to speak with the sultan Malek-al-Kamel. Prayer so that workers of peace and dialogue may arise.
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Homily
All pilgrims to the Holy Land know that certain passages from the Gospel become more concrete when read there, and so are easier to understand. This Sunday’s Gospel is one of these passages. The evangelist Luke is telling us about Jesus’ journey towards Jerusalem, and we can imagine the dusty and sun-baked roads passing through the rocky deserts of Judah and rising towards Zion, the longed-for goal of all pious Jews. Jesus had just left the house of one of the leading Pharisees, where he had attended a banquet filled with cutting and decisive words. He continued on his way, followed by a large crowd. When he realized that so many people were following him, Jesus “turned” to look at them. This is not just an idle narrative detail. In that “turning” lies all of Jesus’ passion for the people. How many times had he told those who followed him that he had not come for himself, but for them! And ever since then, Jesus has not stopped “turning” towards the tired and exhausted crowds of this world: the crowds of yesterday and those of today. And we are among them.
Every time the Gospel is announced to us, but particularly during the Sunday Liturgy, Jesus’ “turning” is made real again. Jesus’ words are spoken for us; they are proclaimed so that they might reach and move our heart. Jesus’ “turning” is serious, just as serious as his love. Jesus took so much on himself for our sake that he gave his very life for us. But he demands that we be just as serious in following him, “Whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and even life itself, cannot be my disciple” (v. 26). These are the conditions necessary for following Jesus. No other part of the Gospel speaks so seriously about following. Unlike the analogous passage in Matthew (10:37), Luke gives a detailed list of the different family relationships - it seems as though he does not want to leave anyone out. And they all stand under the disturbing shocking word “hate.” Jesus is saying that to be his disciple, it is not enough to follow him physically and make some sacrifices. We have to make a clean break with all our ties to the past to the point of “hating” our fathers, mothers, wives, husbands, children, brothers, sisters, and even ourselves! There is no doubt that these words seem exceedingly harsh at first, so harsh that it seems impossible for them to have come out of Jesus’ mouth. And yet there they are, clear and unequivocal.
It is certainly true that these expressions need to be understood in the context of a Semitic language, which lacks forms for the comparative, and in which the sense of the phrase “love less” almost automatically becomes “hate.” This is how this passage is usually interpreted. Nonetheless, the expression “to hate” cannot be so easily neutralized. Jesus’ demands are, and remain, extremely harsh in and of themselves. On the other hand, a simple ethical interpretation of this passage as a refusal of the commandment to love or a critique of the fourth commandment of the Decalogue does not grasp the essence of the Gospel’s request. Jesus and the kingdom of God demand that we wipe away all the ways in which we have ordered our lives up until now and create new ones. All of our relationships, including our relationships with our family, need to be reborn from our radical choice for Jesus. Those who try to love Jesus in the same way as they love other people will end up not loving either one very seriously. At the heart of this passage is the radical choice for the Lord. The following verse clarifies this further, “Whoever does not carry the cross and follow me cannot be my disciple” (v. 27). Jesus speaks these words as he walks towards Jerusalem, the very place where the cross is waiting for him.
And so “following Jesus” means taking part in his destiny, being one thing with him. It is not an easy thing that can be had at little cost. If we want to take this journey we have to think about it carefully and weigh all of our choices. Jesus clarifies this with two examples taken from daily life. A man who wants to build a tower carefully determines if his funds will be sufficient to complete the job; in the same way, before going to war, a king calculates whether his forces will be able to defeat the enemy: if they cannot he will negotiate for peace before it is too late. But we are not talking about making calculations here, as if there were any option other than following the Lord. Quite the contrary, Jesus concludes by affirming, “So therefore, none of you can become my disciple if you do not give up all your possessions” (v. 33). It seems as though the only calculation to make is to give up everything to follow Jesus and be his disciple. And this is not a trivial thing; it is the most serious thing in our lives.
Prayer is the heart of the life of the Community of Sant'Egidio and is its absolute priority. At the end of the day, every the Community of Sant'Egidio, large or small, gathers around the Lord to listen to his Word. The Word of God and the prayer are, in fact, the very basis of the whole life of the Community. The disciples cannot do other than remain at the feet of Jesus, as did Mary of Bethany, to receive his love and learn his ways (Phil. 2:5).
So every evening, when the Community returns to the feet of the Lord, it repeats the words of the anonymous disciple: " Lord, teach us how to pray". Jesus, Master of prayer, continues to answer: "When you pray, say: Abba, Father". It is not a simple exhortation, it is much more. With these words Jesus lets the disciples participate in his own relationship with the Father. Therefore in prayer, the fact of being children of the Father who is in heaven, comes before the words we may say. So praying is above all a way of being! That is to say we are children who turn with faith to the Father, certain that they will be heard.
Jesus teaches us to call God "Our Father". And not simply "Father" or "My Father". Disciples, even when they pray on their own, are never isolated nor they are orphans; they are always members of the Lord's family.
In praying together, beside the mystery of being children of God, there is also the mystery of brotherhood, as the Father of the Church said: "You cannot have God as father without having the church as mother". When praying together, the Holy Spirit assembles the disciples in the upper room together with Mary, the Lord's mother, so that they may direct their gaze towards the Lord's face and learn from Him the secret of his Heart.
The Communities of Sant'Egidio all over the world gather in the various places of prayer and lay before the Lord the hopes and the sufferings of the tired, exhausted crowds of which the Gospel speaks ( Mat. 9: 3-7 ), In these ancient crowds we can see the huge masses of the modern cities, the millions of refugees who continue to flee their countries, the poor, relegated to the very fringe of life and all those who are waiting for someone to take care of them. Praying together includes the cry, the invocation, the aspiration, the desire for peace, the healing and salvation of the men and women of this world. Prayer is never in vain; it rises ceaselessly to the Lord so that anguish is turned into hope, tears into joy, despair into happiness, and solitude into communion. May the Kingdom of God come soon among people!
For the sick, in memory of the dead, for peace
