June 30, 2019

13^th Sunday in Ordinary Time                    

“Christ’s Choices...Our Choices”

Msgr. Thomas Gervasio

I read this advice to husbands on a poster recently: “Never laugh at your wife’s choices. You are one of them.” It has been said, “Our life is the sum of our choices.” If we want to follow Christ, the choices He made should interest us. Two are found in today’s Gospel: meekness and poverty or detachment.
 
Meekness—we tend to view it as weakness. Imagine a young lady calling her parents to tell them that she has met the man of her dreams. Mom and Dad ask, “Honey, what is he like?” She replies, “Oh, I know you are going to really love him! He is so...so...meek!” Parents can be excited about “Mr. Success,” Mr. Professional,” but “Mr. Meek,”—No! Yet Jesus says, “Learn from me, for I am meek and humble of heart.” What does he mean by meekness? He shows us in the Gospel.
 
On his way to Jerusalem, Our Lord had to pass through Samaria but it would hardly be an easy journey. Samaria was “enemy territory.” There was deep historic hostility between the Jews and Samaritans. The Jews despised the Samaritans because they had mixed with the pagans who had come into their land. The Jews viewed them as half-breeds and heretics and would have absolutely nothing to do with them. The feeling was mutual. So it is not surprising that James and John, known as “sons of thunder,” indignant at seeing Jesus rejected, want to “call down fire from heaven to consume them.”
 
However, Our Lord rebukes them. While St. Luke does not record what he said, we can presume that his words echoed his teachings: “Blessed are the meek...the peacemakers...the merciful. We would also see this meekness of Jesus before his persecutors in Jerusalem.
 
The Lord chooses meekness over vengeance, but this meekness is not weakness. It is actually strength because it involves patience and fortitude; it puts a check on our passions and anger and keeps us from responding to wrongs with harsh and wounding words. Pope Francis has said that we could all use the grace of “pruning our tongues a bit.” The meek control the itch to be aggressive, “bossy” or arrogant. Meekness is not weakness but strength under control.
 
Our Lord also chooses poverty or detachment. When the Lord says to a potential disciple, “Foxes have dens and birds of the sky have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to rest his head.”(Mt 8:20) he is saying in effect, “Remember you shall be following a Master who is poor. Don’t expect a comfortable life. To follow me involves sacrifice. To follow me is to realize that this world is not our lasting home. We are merely passing through. So don’t become too attached to material things. We shall have to leave everything behind. Our true treasure lies elsewhere.
 
When some expressed their desire to follow him, Our Lord’s responses seem so harsh: “Let the dead bury their dead.” (Lk 9: 61) “No one who sets a hand to the plow and looks to what was left behind is fit the kingdom of God.” (Lk 9:62) The Lord wants a commitment that supersedes even our family obligations.
 
We would not have had a St. Francis of Assisi if he did not have the courage to detach himself from the life his wealthy father had arranged for him. He went forward and never looked back. [Bishop Smith in Assisi]
 
Today, let’s reflect on the choices we make. Our Lord Christ chose meekness and detachment—should we not choose these as well?