23RD SUNDAY HOMILY IN THE ORDINARY TIME: YEAR C

23RD SUNDAY HOMILY IN THE ORDINARY TIME: YEAR C

HOMILY THEME: FOLLOWING GOD’S WILL THROUGH WISDOM AND DETACHMENT

BY: Fr. Luke Ijezie

Wisdom 9:13-18, Philemon 9-10,12-17, Luke 14:25-33

In all things we always pray that God’s will be done. But knowing the divine will is very difficulty, and having the courage to follow it is even more tasking. Each requires special grace. This 23rd Sunday of the liturgical year brings home to us the practical ways of following God’s will in all we do. We are called to live with wisdom and to practice restraint from material attachments. We are called upon to always choose God in the face other options. But how do we accomplish such an injunction given our greed and inordinate desire for material things? How can we be authentic Christians in a culture that evaluates one by the amount of material things one possesses? How do we choose only God when life daily presents many other alluring options?
1. The first reading from the book of Wisdom (9:13-18) teaches us that the will of God is far beyond what we can grasp with our human way of reasoning. Most of the time the things we consider wise are only conditioned by our materialistic quests. To know what God really wants and wills, we need wisdom from above. We need the Spirit of God to teach us. We need to purify our hearts and minds and allow God to take control. In sum, we need to surrender our thoughts and minds to God. We need to be listeners and doers of His word.

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2. In the responsorial psalm (Psalm 90), the psalmist prays God to make us know the shortness of our human life in order to gain true wisdom. Knowing the shortness of our life helps us to reorder our choices and pursue the things that really matter. The wise person knows that God matters most as He is the fullness of everything.
3. In the second reading from Philemon (1:9-10,12-17), Paul urges Philemon, whom he calls his friend and brother, to take back Onesimus, a slave that ran away from him, Philemon, and ran to Paul who was then a prisoner. Paul pleads with Philemon to make the sacrifice of renouncing his old status as a slave-master and welcome Onesimus back as a brother in Christ and no longer as a slave, since Onesimus has become baptised.
4. In the Gospel text from Luke 14:25-33, Jesus gives his followers three conditions for true followership, all of which border on self-detachment: first, one must renounce one’s family members: father, mother, brothers, sisters, husband, wife, children; second, one must renounce one’s own life; third, one must renounce the easy life and carry one’s cross, that is, accept for the sake of Jesus the sufferings and burdens of everyday. The sum of it all is that the cost of discipleship involves surrendering all claims to anything. One’s only possession is Christ and his bidding. It does not practically mean rejecting our family members or destroying all that we possess and cherish. Rather, it means detaching our minds from them and not letting them rule our lives at the expense of doing God’s will. It means making Christ and all he stands for take priority in everything we do. It is not just to make him first among all other choices but making him the reason for every other choice.
5. Such a way of life is, no doubt, very difficult in a society that adores riches and estimates people only on the bases of their wealth and position. It is difficult to surrender all to Jesus in a society where everyone in search of fame and in a mad rush to defraud everyone. Rather than renouncing all to follow Jesus, some even use the name of Jesus to accumulate all for themselves. Thus, to follow Jesus in the radical way he invites us today, we must undergo thorough self conversion. We must understand that in actual fact, nothing really belongs to us, as all we claim we possess can be taken away from us at any instant. We are only custodians and tenants in a world that belongs entirely to God. If we realise this fact, our life-styles will surely begin to change. That is the type of wisdom the psalmist speaks of. The decision to follow Jesus is always preceded by the sincere resolve to change one’s way of life. It is a life with a new orientation and with readiness to follow wherever the Master leads.
To live such a life, one must be guided by the Spirit of God. There is no other way. May the Spirit of God guide us to through wisdom in all we do!

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