Fr. John Ryan

 

TWENTY THIRD SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

9th September 2007

Jesus presents a very stark message in today's Gospel. He does not present an enticing picture. In business or advertising terms it would probably be said that his sales pitch is very poor - there is little to entice the punter. He grabs the attention alright. How could you ignore what he is saying! If any man conies to me without hating his father, mother, wife, children, brothers, sisters, yes, and his own life too, he cannot be my disciple. The sheer expectancy of discipleship would appear overwhelming when cloaked in such terms. And then he adds to it - anyone who does not carry his cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. There is an immense power in these images. Capturing the deep sense of what it means to be a disciple, the images are extremely powerful and point out to us that to follow Jesus means total commitment.
Total commitment - Jesus, the Way, the Truth and the Life asks us to commit totally to him and his message of Good News. To be a disciple we are called to walk the way of Christ completely. When we encounter resistance even within our own families we are still to choose his way. When difficulties arise we are called to continue to commit. The arrival of a cross in our lives should not see us fall by the wayside but continuing to follow. Sometimes when we encounter the cross in our own lives there is a tendency to say why me? Or we wonder why God allows these things to happen. Jesus is leading us in a different direction to this form of questioning. His approach is to see the cross and embrace it.
Looking at this passage in the context of Jesus' own passion and death on the cross we can say that we are called to see in our own cross the cross of Jesus. We are asked to unite our own suffering with the suffering of Jesus and enter into a spiritual sharing of the passion. Does this remove the suffering and pain? Maybe not - but it can transform it into an offering. Jesus offered his suffering for mankind. When we encounter suffering we too can offer it for different situations.
Many of the saints endured suffering in their lives and they offered it up. St. Therese of Lisieux suffered much illness in her very short life. Having wished to go on the missions and being refused, she, instead, offered her suffering for the successful work of the many missionaries around the world. Her suffering became a well-spring of prayer for the spread of the Gospel. When we encounter the cross in our own lives we can continue to follow Jesus totally by offering our pain for the spread of the Good News, the alleviation of poverty, universal respect for the right to life, the needs of our own families and our community, peace in the troubled areas of the world, the end to violence in our society, the faith development of our young people, the stability of family life, religious toleration and many other needs that we can see so clearly in the world.