Thirteenth Sunday of ORDINARY, Cycle C

First: 1 Kings 19:16b.19-21; Second: Gal 5:1.13-18; Gospel: Lk 9:51-62

THEME of the READINGS

"Call" and "answer": these are two words that summarize the essential contents of the readings of this Sunday. On his way towards Jerusalem, Jesus calls some people to follow him and give him a radical answer (Gospel). In so doing, he goes beyond the requirements of the call and discipleship of the Old Testament, particularly in the call of Elisha (first reading). The Galatians - and all Christians in general - have been called to the freedom of the Spirit. As a result, they are to behave according to their new condition as free men, and they must avoid falling into slavery again (second reading).

DOCTrinal MESSAGE

This Sunday’s biblical passages present us with certain basic characteristics of the answer to Christ’s call to human beings. Such characteristics are demanding; they are not at all the usual.

With Jesus, towards the Golgotha. With the Gospel passage, Luke begins Jesus’ great march from the place of his triumph and success (Galilee) towards the place of his death and incomprehensible defeat (Golgotha in Jerusalem). Jesus begins this journey with "firm determination". He walks on. He is the first, the standard-bearer of the plans of the Father. He approaches the time "when the days drew near for him to be received up," that is, the days of his martyrdom outside the walls of Jerusalem and of his glorious exaltation through his Resurrection. The disciples have said "yes" to his call, and now follow his footsteps, without really understanding where they are going. In this long walk towards Jerusalem Jesus will give them instructions, and little by little they will perceive that the journey ends on a cross. Jesus speaks clearly, but the disciples’ blindness is not easy to overcome. They will need the light of Easter.

Go about doing good as Jesus did. The Sons of Thunder wish to cast fire from heaven upon the people who refuse to give them hospitality. They surely must have heard in the synagogue that Elijah had made fire fall from the sky (1 Kings 18:38), and they wanted to be no less than that great prophet. But Elijah made the fire of God descend not upon a city and its inhabitants, but upon the sacrifice at Carmel. James and John, as good disciples of John the Baptist, go beyond what the have heard in tradition, because they heard their old teacher say that "...the chaff he will burn in unquenchable fire" (Lk 3:17). Luke tells us that Jesus "turned and rebuked them." Why haven’t they realized that Jesus has not come to do evil, but only to do good? Don’t they understand that Jesus is going to Jerusalem to overcome evil with good, on Calvary?

Three attitudes for following Jesus. Three key attitudes for following Jesus are: total surrender, absolute decision, complete self-giving. We must be willing to leave the past behind and keep our eyes fixed straight ahead, towards the land that must be tilled and that one day will bear fruit. We can put no conditions on following Jesus Christ. We need to make a radical choice, because the Kingdom of God is pressing and it cannot wait. Elisha was able to set conditions for Elijah (to go and bid farewell to his parents), but the Christian, if the needs of the Kingdom demand it, must free himself from this concern for a higher good. Finally, Jesus asks his disciples to place their security exclusively in him, giving up all kinds of material and human security. Jesus has nothing, only his Father. The disciple has to be willing to have nothing too: just a path to follow and a fellow traveler to lead him on to the cross.

4. Following Christ with freedom. Before his baptism, the Christian was a slave to himself and to the evil one. Christ freed him, but not in order to throw him into slavery once again. Instead, Christ freed him so that he could live in freedom forever, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Paul teaches us that for an uncircumcised Christian, being circumcised is like losing the freedom of the Spirit and falling prey to the slavery of the Law. Furthermore, a Christian coming from the pagan world loses his freedom if he goes back to living as he did before, following the whims of his flesh, which include idolatry, fornication, discord, drunkenness and, in general, any form of libertinism. The Christian who has been freed by Christ must accept and live out the risk and challenge of freedom.

PASTORal SUGGESTIONS

One way and many paths. Christ is the only Way, a Way that inevitably passes through the shadow of the Cross. This is the only Way of the discipleship, of mission, and of Christian fullness. However, there are many paths that lead there. There are many ways and moments in which Christ calls people to walk with him, side by side. There is the path of matrimonial faithfulness and that of radical consecration, there is the path of suffering and that of loving self-giving to serve the needy; the path of public life and that of life behind the closed doors of the home. There is the path of entertainment, so that people can rest, and that of school, so that they may be educated. There are so many paths! But all paths should come together in the one and only Way: Jesus Christ, our teacher, the redeemer of the world. When our path crosses the Way of Christ, we realize that we haven’t gotten there unfettered, but with our cross and our Calvary. And perhaps we also realize that Christ’s Cross is made up of millions of little crosses, and that the Calvary that supports the Cross is a mountain formed by many little Calvaries. The time has come to ask ourselves whether the path of our life is crossing Christ’s Way. The time has come to ask the Lord to make our paths come together in the Way of Christ, the teacher and redeemer.

Walking without fully understanding what it’s all about. In the things of the spirit, not everything is clear or evident. But we cannot remain paralyzed, we have to go forward though we may not understand. We have to carry on following the star that we saw one day, and that perhaps now is covered by thick clouds. We have to walk like Jesus, with a steady step, without fear, though our mind is telling us to stop or go back, when faced with the fog that lies ahead. We have to walk in the shadows and light of faith, always looking ahead towards Jerusalem, the goal of our existence. We have to walk, walk, walk... Doesn’t our "wisdom" stop us sometimes, on our spiritual journey, in our apostolic work? Walk ahead inspired by your heart, because the heart has its reasons that reason does not understand. And love hardly ever makes a mistake.

Source: http://www.clerus.org/clerus/dati/2004-05/21-13/CICLOC.html by P. ANTONIO IZQUIERDO L.C. (1948-2013)

[참고: 이 파일은 저서명 "가톨릭 교회의 말씀 전례에 따른 성경공부 해설서"(엮은이: 소순태, 출판사: 가톨릭출판사)의 각주의 연장으로 마련되었습니다].