Podcast: 

homily20100627.mp3

4 Minutes Audio: 

4minute20100627.mp3

At the beginning of a New Year we might have heard it said, 
“I’ll go on a diet tomorrow.
But just after this meal, then I’ll go on a diet.”  
Or, “I’ll stop drinking after this last drink; I’ll stop then.”  
Or, “I won’t eat any more chocolates after this last one.”  
And of course, they have another chocolate; 
they have another drink; 
or they’ll have some more food.  
It is something about us—we’ll say, 
“Oh, just this last one; let me just have this last one.”  
It is also evident when we deal with children.  
Children say, “Oh, Mum, just one more; just one more.”  
And they get it and then they’ll say, “Oh, just one more.”  
And they keep going and of course, 
there is no such thing as enough.

In today’s gospel, we get this sense of “now” for discipleship
—Jesus is trying to get across 
the urgency and the commitment to discipleship.
He says, “Come, follow me.  Now.”  
There is no tomorrow. 
The three different would-be disciples are told, 
“No.  Now.  Come follow me now.”  
No. Don’t go back to your homes.  
Don’t bury the dead.  
Don’t do anything.  Come follow me now.
Elijah in the first reading calls Elisha to come follow him
but he wants to go back and tend to his family.
Then he realizes that Elijah will to go without him; 
so he burns up the plows and has one final meal 
and immediately follows Elijah as the next prophet.

For us as Christians, we are called to live and to be a disciple now.  
There is no room for us to say, 
“Oh well, I’ll decide that tomorrow.  
I’ll stop gossiping after this last time; tomorrow I’ll stop.”  
Or, “I’ll be nice to my wife tomorrow, 
but for today, I am just going to be mean.”  
It even sounds absurd.  
But yet we do it in our own Christian lives.   
“I just do these last chores around the house done first
and then I’ll pray or do some good deeds.”
Of course when we are done, we are too tired to pray.  
Or, we say something like,
“I’ll start going to church next Sunday, 
but this Sunday I just need to see this football game, 
or I need to tend to this or that this Sunday.”  
And then next Sunday, we have a different reason for not going.

It is hard to be a disciple.  
It is not a straightforward task, 
but it is a decision and commitment we make 
and we make it now.  
We turn and we face the Lord, 
and we make all our decisions in line with that direction.  
However, it is not a single decision 
that happens and then we are finished. 
Instead it is a direction we set ourselves on.
In other words, consider like a straight line: 
If I am facing this way then I am not facing that way.  
Or better still imagine one of those straight highways 
that cut across our country;
the road goes in each direction as far as the eye can see.

If I walk this way, let’s say East
then I am obviously not walking West. 
We know that Christ calls us to be perfect 
like his Father in heaven is perfect:
to love God with all our hearts, minds and soul
and love our neighbor as ourselves.
Paul reminds the Galatians about this commitment 
in today’s second reading to the Galatians.
If we consider the road to perfection as this highway; 
it is a road to discipleship and perfection, 
but we will never reach our destination until we die.
Yet we can be on the road to discipleship/perfection.  
But here’s the real kicker:
the same road to perfection is also the road to imperfection; 
all we do is turn our back on our Lord and walk away.  
It is the exact same road, there is no distinction.  
The only difference is what way are we facing?  
We are either facing the Lord or we are not facing the Lord.
But there is a danger for us Catholics:  
We face the Lord but we are not moving.  
We are not going anywhere; we are just at a standstill.  
The devil is delighted with that choice;
completely at a standstill on the road to perfection.  
We are facing the Lord but it is meaningless 
because we never carries out in any Christian action.

Oh, we claim to be Catholics or Christians 
but in essence it means nothing 
because we are moving nowhere.  
When the Lord tells us today that we must follow him,
he didn’t say “Standstill.”  He said, “Follow me.”  
And what we need to do often times is get ourselves moving.  
We are going to make mistakes on the road; 
sure we are going to make mistakes.  
We will take five steps forward 
and a step or two back, 
but at least we are on the road.  
But when we are standing still, and we’re saying, 
“Oh yeah, I believe; I believe; I’m Catholic.  Yeah.”  
We are going nowhere and we will continue to go nowhere 
because we really have not chosen a direction to move.

So today the Lord is saying very clearly to us.  
We must choose.  And we must follow.  
We must go and follow the Lord and it is hard work.  
What does it mean for us?  
It means loving our neighbors as 
St. Paul reminds the Galatians.  
It means forgiving that one person 
that we find it really hard to forgive.  
It means reaching out to that one person 
who we would really rather not reach out to.  
That is what it means to walk the path, and not be standing still.

It is not a single step but a succession of steps;
it is walking in a direction of faith.  
So the Lord asks us to choose it again today.  
Yes it is very hard.  
We come here every week to remind ourselves of that choice, 
and we choose Christ again this week.  
So as the three families welcome 
their children into the faith through baptism, 
they have taken the first step 
but they need to know that this is just the first step. 
They are facing the right way today
but they have a long road to go with these children of theirs
and they must walk it, not remain stand still. 
It is not enough just to choose; we must walk that road.  
And we as a community must help them; 
we will be here every Sunday to help them on that journey 
because there are days when it will be very, very hard.
We promise as a community to help each other 
on that road to perfection; on that discipleship road.  
The Lord says it very clearly to us, “Come.  Follow me.”