(Wisdom 9:13-18; Psalm 90; Philemon 9b-10,12-17; Luke 14:25-33)

One of the key sentences to help us get the context of the difficult language used in today’s Gospel is in the first sentence, “Great crowds accompanied Jesus, and he turned and said to them….” Jesus always knew his audience, he knew there were people with the best of intentions, for example the apostles and the other disciples who were consciously trying to follow him eating up every morsel which came from his mouth. There would also have been people who hung around because of the crowds following Jesus, realising that eventually something was going to happen and not wanting to be absent when it did. And others along for the ride. Jesus makes them stop and think “Are you following the crowd or are you following me?” He also asks us “why are you here today? Are you consciously trying to be my disciple? Are you actually, deliberately trying to follow me, to live your life according to my word? To worship God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind? Or are you just here for your weekly spiritual fix? Do you realise how much being a Catholic really costs?”[1] God is calling us into a covenant relationship, not a contractual relationship. A contract is where two parties agree on what they will do for one another, and they fulfil the contract by completing their part of the agreement, after that they have no commitment to one another. A covenant runs far deeper, it means that people without blood ties, will behave towards each other as if they were connected by blood. God is calling us into His family.

The Mill Hill Missionary Fr John Hemer suggests that many Christians are looking for a contractual relationship with God “I’ll go to Mass each Sunday and in return you give me the benefits I want and don’t ask anymore from me than that.”[2]  He says that if that is what your relationship with God looks like then you have not got a faith, you have an insurance policy, or rather you think you have an insurance policy.

Being a Catholic involves sacrifice, that is what Jesus did, He sacrificed himself for us, and He asks us to pick up our cross and bear it. Whatever burden we have been given in the world we are called to bear it. For some of us our cross is short term, we may realise when that term is over, but for others it is a lifetime of carrying and bearing a burden patiently and diligently.

The first reading asks what man can know the intentions of God and states that our reasonings are unsure. It questions whether it is even possible for us to discover what is in the heavens as we are weighed down by the limitations of our body. Since this text was written mankind has developed tremendous knowledge of the earth and a fraction of knowledge of what lies beyond the earth with so much still to discover. However, this has not helped us to take care of the earth as without doubt our climate is now in crisis. Last Monday the Season of Creation started and it runs until the Feast of St Francis of Assisi on October the 4th. We are all asked to review our impact on our planet and at other issues associated with life, are our actions consistent with the teachings found in Sacred Scriptures?

In his letter to Philemon, St Paul tells us that kindness cannot be forced, that love requires consent. He also uses the example of Onesimus to remind us that when we are open and consent to loving Christ, then we are freed from our past; whatever that was; and become brothers and sisters in Christ. He emphasises this by requesting that they should welcome Onesimus; a former slave as they would welcome St Paul.

As I said earlier, the Gospel today is calling us to a Covenantal love with Jesus, He wants us to be fully committed to our love of Him, just as He has always been in His love for us. Jesus never gives up on us, He calls us to draw closer to Him. It is a love akin to a Marriage where both parties put the needs of the other before their own needs. I know from personal experience that Marriage is not always like that, but that is what it is supposed to be like. Just like there are times in my marriage when I get things wrong and have to ask for forgiveness, then there are times in our relationship with Christ that we have to seek His forgiveness. His is a forgiveness which is always available and just like in St Paul’s tells Philemon that kindness is never forced and requires consent, so does our reception of Christ’s forgiveness, it is always available, but we have to consent to it by seeking it in the first place.

The questions we must all ask ourselves today, is am I coming to Church because I seek this Covenantal love offered to us by Jesus, or am I just following the crowd? Is the sacrifice of the Mass fundamental to by very being or a weekly spiritual fix. These are questions for us as individuals, questions which we need to answer for ourselves.

Further Reading

The Catechism of the Catholic Church[3]

Twenty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time

CCC 273, 300, 314: God’s transcendence
CCC 36-43: knowledge of God according to the Church
CCC 2544: prefer Christ to all else
CCC 914-919, 931-932: following Christ in consecrated life

Please keep in your prayers this week

  • Those who are sick, housebound or in hospital, that the care they receive matches all of their needs.
  • Those waiting for the results of medical tests, examinations or scans, that the results can pinpoint the treatment they may need; or alleviate their fears.
  • Our Pastoral Area as we continue to take the first steps towards moving from Maintenance to Mission.
  • Peace in the world, and a de-escalation of the situations where war has already commenced or appears to be inevitable.
  • Fr Patrick as he retires, may God bless him for his many years of service.
  • Fr Stephen as he prepares to come to the pastoral area and for the parishioners and relationships he leaves behind
  • That a way to feed the starving in Gaza can be found that is fair and does not pose a danger to those who are starving or the aid workers.
  • All those working to preserve creation in our world, those who advocate for the sanctity of life, those seeking to protect our environment.

Deacon Tony

6th September 2025.

[1]&2 Fr John Hemer MHM, Pastoral Review, Vol 21Issue 3 [The Tablet Publishing Company, Twickenham, 2025] 80.

 

[3] Homiletic Directory, Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments