Saved And Called To Freedom!

(Homily 13th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Yr. C)

     Upon consideration of the overriding theme(s) emanating from the readings of this Sunday, this may be described as a Sunday of vocation, of call and response. As such, call and response are the two words that condense the contents of the three readings of today. In the first reading, we see the call of Elisha by Elijah. The Gospel presents the episode of Jesus on his way to Jerusalem, where he met people who ask to follow him and those he invited to follow him. Similarly, in the second reading, St. Paul vehemently affirms that the Galatians and all Christians in general are called to freedom, and as such, they and we have to respond adequately to our new condition as free sons and daughters of God. Our freedom is a call and not a condemnation.

     The first reading (1Kg. 19:16b.19-20) describes how Elisha responded to the call of Elijah. One day while Elisha was ploughing, Elijah approached him and taking off his cloak throws it over him without saying a word. At that time the cloak was considered an integral part of the person wearing it and it was a common opinion that the power of its owner was concentrated on it. Elisha receives the cloak and run to Elijah to ask for permission to greet the parents. Elijah granted him the permission. On arriving home, Elisha slaughtered oxen, burned his plough meaning that he is giving up everything. He breaks with his past. God has called us all to be Christians and we have to break with our pagan past. Here, Elijah calls, but in the New Testament Jesus calls. 

     We can make a sort of comparison between Elijah’s call of Elisha with Jesus’ call of his disciples, as evidenced in the first and the Gospel passages respectively. At the call of Elisha he made a request: Let me kiss my father and my mother, and then I will follow you”. On the other hand, when Jesus called the would-be disciples, they equally made a request. In the context of Elijah’s call, we see a call that could be added to existing responsibilities. Instead, with Jesus’ call all existing responsibilities are to be given up, or as the case maybe, subordinate to it. Again another great difference is the fact that even though the mantle of Elijah fell upon Elisha, he can succeed him, and be like his master when he (Elijah) dies (cf. 2Kg. 2). But in the case of Jesus, even upon ascension into heaven, his followers do not replace him, for he remains present and alive in their midst, they remain his followers.

     The Gospel of today (Lk. 9: 51-62) gathers together the different episodes of the life of Jesus, that took place in different moments, not in the succession that Luke narrated them, but they are united with a basic motivation or theme, which is that of decision, of resolution, of a courageous and conscious determination, which Jesus demonstrated in facing the Passion. With the passage of Jesus from Galilee to Jerusalem, Luke begins the great journey and repositioning of Jesus from the place of triumph and success (Galilee) to the place of death and incomprehensible defeat (Jerusalem). In his words: “Now it happened that as the time drew near for him to be taken up, he resolutely turned his face towards Jerusalem” (v.51). These attitude and gesture of Jesus demonstrate that Jesus faced the ordeal of his Passion with full consciousness and decision, “without ifs and buts”, his was the desire to accomplish the will of the Father. In this particular passage, we find the interpretative key to the entire Gospel of St. Luke. Therein, St. Luke tried to bring to light all the sayings and facts of Jesus Christ that he knew, in the course of this journey from Galilee to Jerusalem. It is not just about a geographical relocation, but more than that, it is the ascent of Jesus to his Passion, it the realization of his exodus that was announced in the episode of the Transfiguration: “And suddenly there were two men talking to him, they were Moses and Elijah appearing in glory, and they were speaking of his passing which he was to accomplish in Jerusalem” (Lk. 9:30-31).  

     Besides, this episode equally brings to light the theme of the mercy of Jesus that is of a paramount importance to St. Luke. Here, when James and John (sons of thunder) saw how the Samaritans rejected Jesus, on the basis that “his face was set toward Jerusalem”, they sort to invoke punishment on them: “Lord, do you want us to call down fire from heaven to burn them up?” (v.54). Jesus did not listen to them, instead he rebuked them. They did not understand that Jesus came to do good and not evil; he journeys towards Jerusalem to overcome evil with good. He did not come to condemn but to save. And this is how those who desire to be his disciples have to be merciful as the heavenly Father. Sometimes also, we are like James and John, we are prone to calling down punishment and fire for those who reject Christ or even those who castigate us. But as Jesus teaches we have to learn how to be more inclined to pardon and mercy to people of that sort, or instead of invoking fire, we can invoke the mercy of God upon them.

     After this episode of the rejection of Jesus by the Samaritans, follow the three episodes where Jesus enlightened his would-be followers on the right disposition of heart for his sequela:  

●First, to the one who spontaneously volunteered to follow Jesus: “I will follow you wherever you go”. Jesus responded him: “foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of man has nowhere to lay his head” (vv.57-58). Therefore, the first condition to following Jesus is poverty, detachment from the things of this world. Jesus requires his disciples not to put their trust in the things of this world, rather to build and put their trust in God.

●Second, to the one Jesus invited by himself to follow him, he said, “Let me go and bury my father first”, but Jesus told him: “Leave the dead to bury their dead; your duty is to go and spread the news of the kingdom of God” (vv. 59-60). This entails that those who are called to proclaim the Good news of God’s kingdom have to respond hastily, with readiness and right disposition, without any reserve. Indeed, Jesus requires from his followers complete availability in following him in order to enter into the kingdom of God.

●Third, to the one who was disposed to follow Jesus, but who demanded to go first ad say good bye to his people at home, Jesus responded to him thus: “Once the hand is laid on the plough, no one who looks back is fit for the kingdom of God” (v.62). By this, Jesus intends to say that those who want to follow him have to concentrate all their attention and interest on Him and on the Kingdom of God, there should not be other predominant interests other than Him and the Kingdom of God. They should not give in to distractions.

     Behold, the language of Jesus here appears to be hard but that expresses the exigent nature of the whole Gospel and the discipleship of Christ. However, even though it seems that this passage of the Gospel is addressed to those called in a special way like priests, religious and missionaries, to follow Jesus, it is equally valid for all Christians, for each person is called to follow Christ according to his or her state of life. In virtue of our baptism, we are all called to bear witness to the Gospel. We are therefore, called to live an authentic Christian life, without allowing ourselves to be confounded by the things of this world. Jesus puts himself, his kingdom, his message of salvation as absolute values, before which other values are subordinated. Let us ask ourselves if Christ is our “Only Good” as we repeated in the Responsorial Psalm: “It is you, O Lord who are my portion” (Ps. 16:5). It is only in God that we can find the happiness we are seeking for, for he alone gives true freedom.

      The affirmation of St. Paul in today’s second reading (Gal. 5: 1.13-18) is stupendous. It is like a jubilee hymn. Prior to this, St. Paul reminded us that “we are not children of the slave girl, but of the free woman” (Gal. 4:31). This is the freedom with which Christ has set us free. Christ raised us from our condition of sin to the dignity of God’s children (sons and daughters of God in Christ). Indeed it is worthy to note that Christ won our freedom with the prize of His blood, not out of our own making. Little wonder, St. Paul tells us that “He saved us and called us to be his own people, not because of what we have done, but because of his own purpose and grace” (2 Tim 1:9). He went on: “Christ has freed us so that we remain free” (Gal. 5:1). For St. Paul, our freedom is not a condemnation as some of the desperate philosophers like J. P. Sartre have opined, for them “we are condemned to freedom”; but gallantly St. Paul reminds us that our freedom is a call. “Brothers you are called to freedom” (Gal. 5:13).

     St. Paul was addressing the Christian community of Galati, announcing to the Christians that they are free from the prescriptions of the Jewish law. Here, we see the historical context of Paul’s message, because at that time, circumcision was of great importance to the Jews. And Galatians 2:3-5 reminds us of how circumcision is related to freedom and slavery: “But not even Titus, who was with me, though he was a Greek, was compelled to be circumcised. But it was because of the false brethren secretly brought in, who had sneaked in to spy out our liberty which we have in Christ Jesus, in order to bring us into bondage. But we did not yield in subjection to them for even an hour, so that the truth of the gospel would remain with you”. Indeed, the great Good news is that adherence to the Jewish law of circumcision does not count anymore. What matters for our salvation is only Jesus Christ and faith in him, a faith that is at work through charity.   The freedom Christ has given us is not an obsessed freedom for us to live according to the flesh. “As for you, my friends, you were called to be free. But do not let this freedom become an excuse for letting your physical desires control you” (Gal. 5:13). St. Paul affirms this vigorously because many a times we tend to be carried away by the disordered passions of the flesh.

     We are called to freedom by Christ in order to practice love and mutual help. “Instead let love make you serve one another” (Gal. 5:13). Paul continued and affirmed with precision that “the whole law is summed up in one commandment: love your neighbor as you love yourself”. Ours indeed is a freedom from the slavery of sin, of egoism and individualism. Our freedom is a call that is realized through growth in charity. The Christian community Paul was addressing this message to, was experiencing discord and division, little wonder he uses strong words here: “But if you act like wild animals, hurting and harming each other, then watch out, or you will completely destroy one another” (Gal. 5:15).

     In order to live this freedom as God’s children, we have to practice mutual love; we need to allow the Holy Spirit to lead us, for the Holy Spirit knows the prize that Christ paid for our salvation and freedom. And St. Paul captured this vividly well when he posits that “The Spirit of God joins our spirit in testifying that we are God’s children” (Rm. 8:16). For this St. Paul invites us, “let the Spirit direct your lives, and you will not satisfy the desires of the human nature. For what our human nature wants is opposed to what the Spirit wants…” (Gal. 5:16-17). The Holy Spirit not only testifies for our freedom, He is equally the guarantor, because “where the Spirit of God is present, there is freedom” (2 Cor. 3:17).

     To crown it all, the readings of today in synthesis suggest three necessary attitudes to follow Jesus and to answer his call to freedom: total self-giving, absolute decision and a disinterested generosity. There is need therefore to break with the past, for a Christian loses his freedom if he turns back to live like pagans. Be that as it may, let us rhetorically ask ourselves: do we really live in the freedom Christ gained for us or we are still slaves of our passions and our old ways of living? Let us activate the freedom Christ has gained for us, for indeed, “If the Son of man sets you free you are free indeed” (Jn. 8:36). Child of God, be free indeed!

 (Fr. Vitus M.C. Unegbu, SC)