Following the Lord as Faithful Disciples, like St. Teresa of Calcutta, 23rd Sunday (C), September 4, 2022

Fr. Roger J. Landry
Chapel of the Missionaries of Charity, Bronx, NY
Twenty-Third Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C
September 4, 2022
Wis 9:13-18, Ps 90, Philemon 9-10.12-17, Lk 14:25-33

To listen to an audio recording of today’s homily, please click below: 

The following text guided the homily: 

• Today in the readings the Church has us focus on what it means to be a faithful disciple of Jesus Christ and how our faith in him is meant to transform, to radicalize, every aspect of our life, from our approach to our loved ones, to our possessions, to those who have wronged us, to our sufferings, even to our own life and death. This morning in St. Peter’s Square, during the beatification of Blessed John Paul I, Pope Francis focused on the demanding nature of choosing to follow Jesus on how his predecessor “lived … in the joy of the Gospel, without compromise, loving to the end [and] embodied the poverty of the disciple, which is not only detachment from material goods, but also victory over the temptation to put oneself at the center, to seek one’s own glory.” This morning we will focus not on Blessed John Paul I but on a radiantly smiling religious sister and spiritual mother (well known to you!) who was canonized six years ago today, the 25^th anniversary of whose birth into eternal life we will celebrate tomorrow, who similarly illustrates for us the transformative call flowing from our baptism, how to overcome the various excuses some give to responding to the Lord as he deserves and desires, and essentially how to live as a faithful disciple of the Lord.
• In the second reading, St. Paul tells Philemon that the way he should relate to his escaped slave Onesimus, who had cared for Paul in his Roman imprisonment, should be marked far more by the reality of their common baptism than by Roman class structure and law. Onesimus had escaped and for that reason needed at a minimum to be marked for life by a red-hot iron with a F for “fugitive” on his forehead and he could even be crucified at Philemon’s whim. But Paul sent Onesimus back to Philemon and asked Philemon to receive Onesimus not as a slave but as a brother in the Lord, to welcome him as he would welcome Paul himself or even Christ himself. This is amazing: The reality of the indelible mark of baptism on Onesimus’ soul was to be far weightier, Paul suggested, than the branded F that should be seared into his forehead. And we have every reason to believe that that is exactly how Philemon welcomed Onesimus back, otherwise we almost certainly wouldn’t have had this personal letter of St. Paul preserved. This points to the type of revolution the Christian faith is supposed to work. Our faith in Christ, and what we know he asks of us, is supposed to be the central reference point for how we look at ourselves, how we look at others, and how we make our decisions. Philemon received God’s grace to welcome Onesimus no longer as a piece of property, no longer as someone who had stolen from him, but as a beloved spiritual sibling. The Christian faith is always supposed to transform the way we look at others. It certainly had that impact in Mother Teresa’s life. She took seriously Jesus’ words that whoever receives a little child in his name, receives him, and that whatever we do to the least of his brothers and sisters, we do to him. And she behaved accordingly, finding and loving Jesus Christ in the “distressing disguise” of lepers, the dying, those covered in maggots drowning in their own urine in gutters, those with AIDS/HIV, refugees, the disabled, the untouchables, abandoned, orphaned, unwanted and unborn children, and so many others. No one was a mere mortal, to use CS Lewis’ memorable expression: everyone was special for God and therefore special for her. God calls us all to this holy vision and to the actions that flow from it.
• In the Gospel Jesus out of love helps us to focus on the various excuses we give, still today, to acting on the call he gives us by our baptism, like he gave to Mother Teresa, to be holy as God is holy, and to love others as he has loved us first. He describes for us that our Christian faith is meant to be the most defining reality in our life. The Book of Wisdom in the first reading reminds us that “indeed, the deliberations of mortals are timid and unsure are our plans. For the corruptible body burdens the soul and earthly shelter weighs down the mind that has many concerns.” Jesus wants to help us to transcend those timid deliberations, unsure plans, burdens of the body and weights of the soul. And so he tells us that in order to be his follower we must count the cost of discipleship. Just like someone building a tower needs to have enough in the budget for materials and a general to win a war needs to have enough well-trained troops, so we to be a follower of Christ need to know the commitment it’s going to take. He does this not to scare us away, but to give us proper expectations so that we will open ourselves to receive the help he’ll give to complete win the battle against the evil one and discouragement and to complete the building project of the Christian life.
• Today he gives three conditions.
• The first is to love God above every reality. He says, “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.” In other words, Jesus must be our greatest love. The word “hate” in Hebrew does not mean “detest” but to “put in second place.” Jesus, after all, calls us to honor our parents, not hate their guts. If he calls us to love even our enemies then we are certainly called to love our siblings. The point of Jesus’ expression is that we must love him more than we love ourselves or our loved ones. Jesus cannot just be a part of our life but the center. He clearly was for Mother Teresa, who was willing to leave her home in Albania and go first to Ireland, then to India and then to the ends of the earth because she knew that Jesus was calling her to satiate his infinite thirst for souls. Each of us in a similar way must put Jesus first — and this, frankly, will help us to love our loved ones more, not less, and to seek their ultimate good and happiness through a contagious and consistent witness of a life of faith.
• The second condition concerns our willingness to suffer for him who suffered all for us. Jesus says, “Whoever does not carry the cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.” We need to be prepared to suffer out of love for Jesus and others; otherwise, we will not be able faithfully to fulfill the journey of the Christian life. The clearest example of this is the martyrs, who were prepared to die rather than to sin, who were prepared to embrace the Cross all the way because they knew that the Cross would unite them to Christ. But we see this as well in Christian doctors, medical students and pharmacists who refuse to take part in any way in abortions, even if they might suffer professionally; we see this in people who stick up for Christ and his teachings even when they suffer derision as a result at school, work or in their families; we see this in those who sacrifice money and time to care for others and for the mission of the Church. Mother Teresa was never afraid of the Cross, because she recognized that the Cross is not so much a symbol of pain but of the love that makes that suffering bearable, and she grasped that by uniting herself to Christ on the Cross she was responding to his thirst and sharing it.
• The third condition is meant to help us find and place in Christ our real treasure. Jesus says, “None of you can become my disciple if you do not give up all your possessions.” This seems to be a shockingly challenging condition, but Jesus was driving at something he had said elsewhere in the Gospel. “No one can serve two masters; for he will either hate the one and love the other or be devoted to the one and despise the other” (Mt 6:24). He then gave that sentence a clear practical application: “You cannot serve both God and money” (Mt 6:24). Unless we give up our love of money, unless we make the choice not to serve money, unless we sever the cord of being possessed by our possessions, unless we become detached from them and use them for God’s kingdom, then we cannot be his faithful follower. We cannot help but think here of the Rich Young Man, who, when presented by Jesus with the path to true fulfillment through giving up what he owned, bestowing the money on the poor, storing up treasure in heaven and then coming after him, chose his stuff rather than Jesus. Jesus says that we cannot be his disciple unless we’re prepared to choose differently from the Rich Young Man, unless we’re ready to use all that we have in order to obtain the pearl of great price. This, likewise, Mother Teresa did, becoming poor together with Jesus, so that she might better serve the poor and lift them up. This led her to a far greater trust in God’s providence, since she wasn’t putting her faith, hope, love and security in the things of this world. And God responded. And she became one of the richest persons on earth in what matters most. God wants to enrich each of us by that same wealth, if only we detach ourselves from the things of this world so that we might be able to receive it.
• It’s tempting to try to soften Jesus’ three conditions, as if he really didn’t or couldn’t mean them literally, because they are so challenging to our human weaknesses. We’re tempted to try to reduce the price tag of the faith, as if Jesus were running a Yard Sale and we can haggle the cost down to something we think a bargain. There’s no such thing, however, as a “Christianity on the cheap,” in which we’re somehow able to have God and our other gods, too. It’s not enough to be a “fan,” or a “groupie,” or a Facebook friend or Twitter follower of Jesus. To be Jesus’ disciple, to enter into his kingdom, requires a hard and decisive choice. One has got to be willing, as Jesus says elsewhere, to “pluck out one’s eyes,” “to cut off one’s hands” if that’s what it takes to follow him (Mt 5:29-30). We have got to be willing even to lose our life, because it is only the one who loses his life who will find it again in God (Mk 8:35). Unless we have a clear idea of the cost of discipleship and are prepared to pay it, Jesus implies, we’re not going to be able to complete the journey of the Christian life. With great love, authentic spiritual fatherhood, and trust in us, Jesus wants to help us reflect on what means it’s going to take to achieve the end and to will those means.
• And Jesus reminds us that while there is always significant cost to our discipleship, the rewards are much greater. Jesus promised us as much elsewhere in the Gospel after Peter asked him, “Lord, we have left everything and followed you. What then will we have?” Jesus responded, “Truly I tell you, … everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or fields, for my name’s sake, will receive a hundredfold, and will inherit eternal life” (Mt 19:29). There’s no greater promise than that! As we count the cost of discipleship and with God’s help pay the price, we know that in return we will receive Christ, who is the pearl of great value and the treasure buried in the field, worth sacrificing all we are and have to obtain!
• Part of that reward, that super-compensatory treasure, is Jesus’ awesome self-gift in the Holy Eucharist. This is the fruit of Jesus’ leaving his Father’s side in heaven, his carrying the cross, his renouncing all earthly possessions, his “hating” even his own life, so that we might have life to the full. This is where Jesus strengthens us for the battles of life and gives us sturdy bricks, day by day, to become a temple with a high bell-tower capable through its peals of bringing others to worship God alongside us. The Eucharist — both Mass and adoration — was, as you know, the real source of Mother Teresa’s sanctity. She summarized the secret of holiness by saying: “The time you spend with Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament is the best time that you will spend on earth. Each moment that you spend with Jesus will deepen your union with Him and make your soul everlastingly more glorious and beautiful in heaven.” As we gratefully observe the sixth anniversary of her canonization and prepare for her feast and 25^th anniversary of her glorious and beautiful birth into heaven, we ask her to pray that our union with Christ in Holy Communion may spur us on to choose him above everyone else, to embrace him thirsting on the Cross, to find in him the real treasure of our heart, and to help us to enrich others with that same gift. And we beg her to continue to pray for us so that in our life, we, too, may do something truly beautiful for God and come to the place where she and Blessed John Paul I now rejoice with Jesus and all the saints.

The readings for today’s Mass were: 

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