{"id":1899,"date":"2016-09-04T11:52:46","date_gmt":"2016-09-04T15:52:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/?p=1899"},"modified":"2016-09-04T11:52:46","modified_gmt":"2016-09-04T15:52:46","slug":"23rd-sunday-in-ordinary-time-year-c-homily-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/23rd-sunday-in-ordinary-time-year-c-homily-2\/","title":{"rendered":"23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C – Homily"},"content":{"rendered":"

23rd<\/sup> Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C<\/a>
\nWisdom 9:13-18b
\nPsalm 90:3-4, 5-6, 12-13, 14, 17
\nPhilemon 9-10, 12-17
\nLuke 14:25-33<\/p>\n

Is Jesus really telling us to hate<\/em><\/strong> people?<\/p>\n

This doesn\u2019t match with what Jesus says the two greatest commandments are, to love God and love our neighbor.\u00a0 The fourth commandment tells us to honor our mother and father and now we hear Jesus saying to hate our mother and father.\u00a0 It doesn\u2019t make sense.<\/p>\n

Jesus goes on to tell us that we must even hate our own life.\u00a0 God is the one who has given us life.\u00a0 Why should we hate the life that God has given us?\u00a0 It\u2019s confusing.<\/p>\n

We think of love <\/em>and hate <\/em>as direct opposites.\u00a0 To love a person is to care deeply for them while to hate them is to despise them, to wish ill upon them.\u00a0 Is that what Jesus is telling us to do?<\/p>\n

No.\u00a0 While we might think of love <\/em>and hate<\/em> as opposite that is not what the original words of Jesus were saying.\u00a0 The word Jesus used for hate<\/em> does not mean to despise or maybe even to cause ill to a person.\u00a0 It is a much gentler \u201clove\u2014less\u201d.<\/p>\n

What Jesus is telling us still means to love all but that we must put God above all else.\u00a0 This is not easier.\u00a0 Jesus knows this.\u00a0 He wants us to understand what we are getting ourselves into.\u00a0 If we truly desire to be his disciples we are going to have to make some tough decisions.<\/p>\n

This is why Jesus talks about calculating the cost.\u00a0 In deciding what to do, we need to take time to think about what it will require of us.<\/p>\n

Jesus speaks of the comparison of building a tower.\u00a0 In today\u2019s terms, let\u2019s say we want to build a new garage.\u00a0 What is it going to take?\u00a0 First, we need enough land to build it on.\u00a0 We will need to prepare the site.\u00a0 Can we do this ourselves or do we need to hire someone?\u00a0 Then we need to pour a concrete floor, build walls and a roof.\u00a0 We need garage doors.\u00a0 We need lighting.\u00a0 We probably want an automatic garage opener.\u00a0 We need to paint it.\u00a0 We need a driveway to get to the garage.\u00a0 Wow!\u00a0 This could be a lot of work.\u00a0 It could cost a fair amount of money.\u00a0 After looking at what it will take we can think about if we have enough to build a garage or not.<\/p>\n

In the same way, we can ask ourselves what is required of us to Jesus\u2019 disciples.\u00a0 Are we willing to make sacrifices?<\/p>\n

Here I think of the way our RCIA program works for anyone wishing to become part of our Catholic church.\u00a0 \u00a0It\u2019s that time of year for our program to start.\u00a0 We don\u2019t start with the people becoming Catholic and then after that teach what it means to be Catholic.\u00a0 No, for older teens and adults, we have them attend the classes and then make their decision to join our church or not.\u00a0 We teach them about what it means to be Jesus\u2019 disciple and then they can \u201ccalculate the cost<\/em>\u201d for themselves.<\/p>\n

The decision for most of us to be baptized was made a long time ago, most often when we were babies.\u00a0 That doesn\u2019t mean that we don\u2019t need to think any more about what it means to be Jesus\u2019 disciples.\u00a0 It is an ongoing decision for us.<\/p>\n

Anytime we need to make a significant decision, we need to \u201ccalculate the cost<\/em>.\u201d\u00a0 What impact do the possible choices have on my faith?\u00a0 What impact do they have on our family, our own lives?\u00a0 What does the choice we make say about who we are as a person?<\/p>\n

We need to pray for God to guide us.\u00a0 Wisdom reminds us, \u201cWho can know God\u2019s counsel, or who can conceive what the Lord intends<\/em>?\u201d\u00a0 It is not easy to know what God wants us to do.\u00a0 When we do know what God wants us to do, it is not always easy to do it.<\/p>\n

In a black and white world, we might like it all spelled out for us.\u00a0 We would like it all spelled out for us in very exact times and we want God to make it easy for us.<\/p>\n

God worked to spell it out for his people.\u00a0 We think in terms of 10 commandments but for the Jews there were a total of 613 commandments.\u00a0 Even with all those commandments, the Jews still struggled to do what God asked of them.<\/p>\n

Jesus comes to break open the Word of God for us, to show us what it really means.\u00a0 He knows it is not always easy.\u00a0 He knows we fall short.\u00a0 If we could always get it right, there would have been no need for Jesus to die on the Cross for our sins.<\/p>\n

Jesus comes to teach us the Father\u2019s Will but we need help to apply it in our lives today.\u00a0 That\u2019s why that after Jesus\u2019 Ascension God sends us the Holy Spirit who proceeds from the Father and the Son.\u00a0 The Holy Spirit comes to give us knowledge, understanding, and wisdom.\u00a0 The Holy Spirit gives us counsel to make good decisions.<\/p>\n

Where does it all start?\u00a0 What is God\u2019s will for us?<\/p>\n

I think we can start with one simple prayer that we have all memorized, a prayer that we will say together before we leave.\u00a0 It is a prayer that is part of many devotions.\u00a0 It is a prayer that we can say quickly and without even thinking about it.\u00a0 It is a prayer that Jesus taught us.<\/p>\n

It is the Lord\u2019s Prayer<\/em>.<\/p>\n

We pray thy kingdom come<\/em>.\u00a0 What does that mean?\u00a0 What does God want the world to be like?<\/p>\n

We pray thy will be done<\/em>.\u00a0 What is God\u2019s will?<\/p>\n

We might say the Lord\u2019s Prayer often.\u00a0 How often do we think about the words?\u00a0 How often do we calculate the cost<\/em> of what it takes to truly pray thy will be done<\/em>?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C Wisdom 9:13-18b Psalm 90:3-4, 5-6, 12-13, 14, 17 Philemon 9-10, 12-17 Luke 14:25-33 Is Jesus really telling us to hate people? This doesn\u2019t match with what Jesus says the two greatest commandments are, to love God and love our neighbor.\u00a0 The fourth commandment tells us to honor our …<\/p>\n

Continue reading ‘23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C – Homily’ »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[82],"tags":[190,189],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pMTPk-uD","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1899"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1899"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1899\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1900,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1899\/revisions\/1900"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1899"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1899"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1899"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}