Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time C.
July 1, 2007. Our Lady of Grace 5:15, 9:30.
1 Kings 19: 16b, 19-21. Galatians 5: 1, 13-18. Luke 9: 51-62.
A very self conscious seventh grader was the star on her
middle school volley ball team. A game had to be rescheduled for the
following Saturday. The girl immediately noticed that the rescheduled
game conflicted with her parish youth group service project. The teenager
went to her coach to tell him about her predicament. The coach said, “I
expect you to be here for the volley ball game. Your team mates are
counting on you.” When she began to cry the coach said to her, “Either you
are here for the game or I will ask you to turn in your volley ball
uniform.” The young woman spent a sleepless night thinking and
praying. The next day she went to the coach’s office, handed him her
uniform and silently walked away. Her parents were shocked and surprised
that she was choosing God and church over volley ball. These are the
values they had taught her, but they were surprised and very proud that she was
doing what she had been taught. The teenager didn’t want to talk about
her decision. All she said was, “This is about God – I know what I am
supposed to do.” My sense is that our teenagers are sometimes even more
faithful to the values we have taught them than we are when they know that we
really support the good and faithful choices that they are making. We
have very, very good young people in our parish community.
“Someone said to Jesus as they were continuing their
journey, ‘I will follow you wherever you go.’ Jesus answered, ‘Foxes have
dens and the birds of the sky have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to
rest his head.’ Jesus said to another person, ‘Follow me’. That
person responded, ‘Lord, let me go first and bury my father.’ Another
said, ‘I will follow you, Lord, but first let me say farewell to my family at
home.’ Jesus said, “No one who puts a hand on the plow and keeps
looking back to what he or she has left behind is fit for the
Life is filled with distractions that keep us from being
focused on the goal and purpose of life, even when we have very carefully
chosen our goal and purpose. Today’s gospel tells us that Jesus set his
mind and heart on going to Jerusalem where he would fulfill the purpose of his
life, his act of perfect love on the cross. As they traveled through a
Samaritan village the people were rude and unwelcoming to him. When his
disciples wanted to stop and call down fire from heaven to destroy the village,
Jesus clearly saw their anger as a distraction form the purpose of his
life. Yes, the villagers were rude, but Jesus refused to be
distracted from his goal in life by anyone or anything, no matter how powerful
the distraction was.
I have heard it said that there are two dogs in each of us,
a good dog and a bad dog. Both bark for our attention. My sense is that
there are many dogs barking inside of us seeking attention. Most of the barking
dogs inside of us may even be good dogs. Many of our distractions may
actually be good. That is what makes them so attractive. It is the
dog that we feed, good or bad, distraction or on goal,
that will win the battle for our attention and guide the journey of our
lives. Not only bad things keep us from God and from our life goal;
being distracted by many good things can confuse our focus and disperse our
energy in ways that keep us from our goal and purpose in life. The Christian life
is about avoiding evil. It is also about faithfully living our vocation
and doing the good that God call us to do. Seeking after too many
good things, and not focusing our energy on the good things that God calls us
to, can also keep us from fulfilling the purpose and meaning of our lives.
Every truly successful life demands three things:
First we must prayerfully discern what God wants us to do and be in life.
Discerning our vocation is a life-long process. Jesus knew that he was
being called to walk the road to
Once we know the road we are called to travel, a successful
life demands commitment. Jesus not only knew that he was called to make
the journey to
Finally, a successful life demands perseverance.
Perseverance is not something that we do alone. Perseverance involves
confidence that God has led us on the journey of discernment and commitment and
that God will give us the grace to finish the journey that we have begun with
peace and joy, not with bitterness and resentment. On the cross Jesus
forgave those who crucified him, he showed his love for his mother by giving
her into the care of the beloved disciple, and he ended his journey in deep
peace with God saying,” Father, into your hands I commend my
spirit.” A successful life demands
perseverance filled with the peace and joy that only God can give.
Jesus said, “No one who set a hand to the plow and looks
back to what was left behind is fit for the