My homily for this weekend:

The Cost of Discipleship

1 Kings 19:16-21; Psalm 16:1-11; Galatians 5:1, 13-18; Luke 9:51-62

     Are you the disciple that Jesus has called you to be?

     Our readings today tell us that our commitment to follow Jesus must be radical, absolute, and wholehearted. What does this imply for us? What does discipleship require of us?

     In the first reading, Elisha was called to leave everything behind and go with Elijah. Elisha slaughtered his oxen and burned his plows. Don’t we look for the bare minimum of what “counts” to be a disciple rather than offering our whole lives in commitment?

     In the second reading, St. Paul tells us that the entire law can be summed up in “Love your neighbor as yourself”. Do we look at that as a command to “be nice” to other people? Or do we see it as a serious call to be a disciple of the one whose total sacrifice for others we celebrate around this table?

     The gospel tells us that Jesus “turned his face toward Jerusalem” – knowing full well what was in store for him there: betrayal, torture, and death. But how easily do we turn away from our commitment as a disciple when it looks like it’s getting too hard?

     Jesus told one enthusiastic young man that he would have to give up his comfortableness to follow him. How often do we choose the “comfortable” path or the easy way instead of the difficult way of discipleship?

     When Jesus called two others, they made excuses for why they couldn't follow him right now. Don’t we also make excuses for why it is not convenient right now to proclaim the kingdom of God? 

     Jesus says that no one who looks to what was left behind is fit for the kingdom of God. Do we let our fondness for the past, or our regrets, or our hesitations, or our indecision, or our fear keep us from giving ourselves totally to following Jesus?

     Are you the disciple that Jesus has called you to be? What is keeping you from it? And what are you going to do, beginning right now, to change that?