Come follow me!

This is the thirteenth Sunday of ordinary time. The theme of the scriptures today is a question for each of us to answer. What is my response to the command of the Lord to, “Follow me.”? We note that it is not an invitation but a command.

We see this in the first reading when the Lord told Elijah the prophet that he was to anoint Elisha as prophet to succeed him. In the Gospel Luke has Jesus on His journey to Jerusalem in which we was resolute. He wanted to pass through a Samaritan village but was rebuffed. The Samaritans would have nothing to do with the Jews. Three men each spoke up and said, “I will follow you wherever you go.” In each of these four instances when Jesus or Elijah said come follow me the answer was the same--Yes, but—“I have something to do first…, let me kiss my father and mother good bye.” “Let me go first and bury my father.” “But first let me say farewell to my family at home.” Jesus answer to all these pleas for delay is “No”. “One who sets a hand to the plow and looks to what was left behind is not fit for the kingdom of God.”

In Mk14:26 : Jesus said to them, that is the disciples, you will all be scandalized this night for it is written “I will smite the shepherd and the seep will be scattered.” Peter said to Him, “yet not I.” Jesus said to him, “Amen I say to thee, today, this very night, before the cock crows twice, you will deny me three times.” But Peter went on speaking with greater force, “Even If I should have to die with you, I will not deny you.” We remember what happened, a maid servant looked at him by the fire and said, “You are a Galilean. Are you not one of His, Jesus, followers?” Peter said, “I am not, I know not the man.”

When Jesus was arrested, scripture says about His disciples: “They all left Him and fled.”

We all may have the best of intentions. But what will we do if Jesus says to us, “Come follow me!” We will want to think about it or take care of some other business. We cannot commit our lives. We want to remain detached, but call us He has surely done. What is it that makes us uncertain and want to hesitate. First, I think we are enamored of this world; of what the senses convey to us. We think yes, the Lord and His Church speak to us of truth but I’ve got time to mull it over some more. I’ve got today and tomorrow and next week. I can go on as I am for a while yet. But tomorrow never comes. Today is all I have. Jesus has told us that this world is passing away.

The truth is that Jesus has said, “Come, Follow me!”

We remember the parable of the rich young man who said to Jesus what good work should I do to have eternal life?” …If you would enter eternal life keep the commandments. He said to him “Which?” Jesus named them. The young man said, “All these have I kept, what is yet wanting to me?” “If thou would be perfect, go, sell what you have and give to the poor and come follow me.” But when the young man heard the saying he went away sad, for he had great possessions.

The Lord said in effect let nothing stand between you and my will for you. He went away sad because he cared more for his earthly life than he did for the life that Jesus wanted to give him.

This is the first commandment, “You shall love the Lord your God with your whole heart, your whole soul, your whole mind and with all your strength.”

When the rich young man said to Jesus, “What is yet wanting to me?” He thought that Jesus would confirm him in his good life and assure him of eternal life. But such was not the case. “If you would be perfect, go, sell what you have and come follow me.”

At this point we should stop and consider the judgment and what the Church has always taught her children about the life to come. Unrepentant motal sin will send us to hell for ever. We must have died in sanctifying grace. But our entrance to heaven may not yet be possible. The confessions of our sins will absolve us but there may be the temporal punishment due to put us in the state of perfection. “Only he whose heart is pure and whose hands are clean can climb the mountain of the Lord.” And again the Lord says, “You are to be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect.”

This opens to us the need for the state of purgatory. The effects of sin in our lives and on the lives of others, even venial sin leaves the need for temporal punishment. All of this can be mitigated by the effect of sanctifying grace to help us to what become like Christ, like God.

We are our own enemy. St. Paul today says, “For you were called for freedom, brothers and sisters, but do not use this freedom as an opportunity for the flesh. I say live by the Spirit and you will certainty not gratify the desire of the flesh. For the flesh has desires against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh. These are opposed to each other. So that you may not do what you want. But if you are guided by the Spirit you are not under the law.”

Jesus calls us, “Come follow me!” By means of the Spirit who speaks to us in the depths of our being. If the depths of our soul is encumbered with thoughts of personal glory or the effects of gossip or anger, or hatred or vindictiveness it can be impossible to hear the call of God.

In the Gospel verse from 1Sam 3:9 we see young Samuel sleeping in the temple near the ark where Eli was also. Three times the Lord called Samuel who arose and going to Eli he said, “Here I am.” Eli finally realized that it was the Lord who called Samuel.

The Lord also called Isaiah who responded “Here I am, Lord. I come to do your will.”

Jesus has reminded us many times to “be not afraid.” In the evening of the day of the resurrection, Jesus entered through the locked doors of the upper room and said, “Peace be with you. It is I, do not be afraid.”

The traditions and doctrine of the Catholic Church have not changed although many have taken liberties with them.

We must turn back to the age old practice of the faith: To train ourselves to go where it is hardest to go. To again know the true faith. To pray and to do penance. In Rev 3, Jesus says, “I stand at the door and knock, if any man listens to my voice and opens the door to me, I will come in to him and will sup with him, and he with me and he who overcomes, I will permit him to sit with me upon my throne. As I have overcome and sat with my Father on his throne.”
“Do not be afraid. Come follow me!”