FREEDOM IN CHRIST! ~ CookingFood.Org

“SEEDS OF LIFE”

Sunday, 26th June 2016.

Thirteenth Week of Ordinary Time

1 Kgs 19: 16b, 19-21;

Ps 15: 1-2, 5, 7-11;

Gal 5: 1, 13-18;

Lk 9: 51-62.

FREEDOM IN CHRIST!

Commitment and freedom seem quite incompatible to many. Yet today’s readings call for total commitment lived in total freedom. Today’s liturgy speaks of what it means to be fully a disciple of Jesus.

Today’s passage opens with a very important moment in the life of Jesus. “As the time drew near for him to be taken up into heaven, Jesus resolutely took the road for Jerusalem.” For Luke, Jerusalem is the focal point of Jesus’ life. It is the focal point from which Jesus’ great redemptive work unfolds. It is there that the disciples will form a new community to continue the work of Jesus and from Jerusalem it will spread to every corner of the world. Jesus sets his face “resolutely” for Jerusalem because he goes there ready to undergo whatever is necessary for his work to be completed. Right away, he sets an example and a challenge for our commitment to join in his work and to be ready to take whatever comes in our doing of it.

As Jesus makes his way to Jerusalem, a number of people express a desire to join him. Obviously – like many of us – they do not fully understand just precisely what “going to Jerusalem” really means for Jesus and those who go with him.

The first one courageously and generously says to Jesus, “I will follow you wherever you go.” He has a lot of enthusiasm but may not be aware of the realities facing him. Jesus pulls him up short. Even the wild animals have a place to live, he tells the man, but the “Son of Man” has nowhere to call his own. One needs to be aware of what is expected of a disciple. One must be ready to let go of people and things, of all strings and attachments, of all external securities and props. Am I ready for this? Or do I set up my securities first and then, carrying them with me, decide to follow him?

The second man also wants to follow Jesus. He makes what seems a reasonable request: “Let me go and bury my father first.” The reply of Jesus sounds harsh: “Let the dead bury their own dead; your duty is to go and spread the news of the kingdom of God.” Jesus, of course, is not saying that we should not love and respect members of our family. But he is asking where our priorities in life really are. He is saying that, if we wish to be his disciple, we cannot make our own arrangements first and then, only when we are ready, go and follow him. How many of us first plan our careers carefully and only then ask how we can be good Christians, when it obviously should be the other way round?

The third man says he wants to follow Jesus but wants to say goodbye to his family and friends first But to be a disciple of Jesus, I cannot hesitate. The call is NOW, today and the response must also be now, today.

When we see the call of Elisha in the First reading, we see such a dramatic response in the call of Elisha who was to succeed Elijah as prophet. Elisha also wanted to bid farewell to his parents. “Go, go,” said Elijah. But then Elisha thought better of it. He took his two oxen and slaughtered them. He took his plough and used it to make a fire for cooking the ox meat which he gave to all his men. All these things were his means of livelihood. Empty-handed but totally free he then followed Elijah. We are not meant to take all these images with absolute literalness but they are intended to help us reflect on the various things – material, emotional, intellectual – which prevent us from an unconditional following of Jesus. All of these can have a crippling effect on our lives. Much of the time we are only living half a life or we are living other people’s lives and not our own. And that is why Paul in today’s passage from Galatians emphasizes freedom so much. “When Christ freed us, he meant us to remain free.” Some of the Galatians Christians were converted Jews and it seems they were being urged to go back to some of their old Jewish religious customs. The irony is that they, like many people today, were really afraid of being fully free.

To be free, as Paul warns us, is not an excuse for self-indulgence although there are those who seem to think that freedom is expressed by unlimited and unimpeded self-indulgence. To be free is not to escape from the realities of living but to face up to them. To be fully free is to take total responsibilities for one’s own life and not put the blame for personal difficulties on other people. It means not clinging to external securities like money, property, status, success, achievements and the like. And, strangely enough, the free person does exactly what he wants because what he passionately wants is a world of truth, and caring, and sharing, and inner security and peace. Of course, he does not always get these things from others because they do not share his vision but he sees that as their problem rather than his.

And so we find this freedom in people such as Jesus, in Elisha, in Paul. More recently we found it in the lives of people like Bishop Oscar Romero, Mahatma Gandhi and Mother Teresa. They said an unconditional ‘Yes’ to Jesus. They joined him unconditionally in walking resolutely to Jerusalem. They put their hand to the plough and did not look back. Can I not do the same?

Prayer: Lord! Help us to value our freedom, Make us find true freedom in following you. Amen

(This reflection is an extract from www.livingspace.ie)