A Call for Transformation: 13th Sunday in Ordinary Time
Sermon by Emmanuel Suntheni OSB – Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time – Year C
Sermon And Christian Act In The Word
Theme: A Call for Transformation! Decisive Focus!
Point of Reflection: Today’s Scriptural readings bring forth a difficult message about the need for decisive and sometimes drastic decisions that discipleship requires. This is a call for transformation. Elisha had to abandon his peaceful farming occupation to become a prophet. Paul, to become an apostle, had to renounce a way of life rooted entirely in the Jewish law. Jesus made his own difficult decision to face the cross that waited for him in Jerusalem. He then taught his would-be followers about the necessity to break all attachments as a necessary condition for discipleship.
We, too, as Christians, are invited today to make decisive breaks in our lives and embrace the life of Christ with a new future and mission. We all need to be transformed. Therefore, we must sing with the Psalmist, “You show me the path of life. In your presence there is fullness of joy”.
First Reading: 1 Kings 19:16, 19–21
Psalm: Psalm 16:1–2, 5, 7–11
Second Reading: Galatians 5:1, 13–18
Gospel: Luke 9:51–62
Sermon (Reflection): Today’s gospel reading describes a decisive turning point in the life of Jesus, who decided to leave Galilee and to begin his journey to Jerusalem, despite knowing full well that death awaits him there. Doing so, Jesus made a decisive break with his successful and generally peaceful ministry in Galilee, to begin his journey towards death and resurrection. The focus of his ministry would also change. He will no longer heal and proclaim God’s kingdom but focus on teaching about discipleship and on the preparation for his passion.
The second part of our passage shows this change of focus. First, Jesus’ two disciples, James and John, acting like Elijah, want to bring fire down from heaven on the inhospitable Samaritan village (cf. 2 Kings 1:10). Jesus forbids them to do so. In line with his teaching on the love of enemies, he breaks with the pattern of dealing with enemies through violence, which Elijah followed.
Then, as he moved towards Jerusalem, Jesus encountered three individuals. The first of them volunteered to follow Jesus, who responded by warning that his followers must be ready for rootlessness and rejection. Jesus suffered rejection from his own people and even from the Samaritans. He literally had “no place to lay down his head”. Those who follow him must be prepared to face the same exclusion and alienation on account of their commitment to Jesus.
Jesus then invited another man to follow him. However, this person wanted first to bury his father. Like Elisha, this man appears ready to break away from the family to join Jesus. However, his request is, in fact, a refusal. The father of that man was still alive, otherwise, the man would not have been on the road conversing with Jesus. The man effectively told Jesus that he will not join him for as long as his father lives. His response shows his preference for the family over Jesus. Unlike Elisha, he was not ready to break with his past and was, therefore, unfit for discipleship.
The third man declared his readiness to follow Jesus, but he wanted first to go and say farewell to his family, just as Elisha had done. Jesus responded with the familiar allusion to ploughing as a symbol for the necessity of complete commitment. Those who “plough” must not look back to their former life but look ahead, completely focused on their new goal of serving God and following Jesus. They must make a decisive break with the past and redefine their priorities. This must be us today.
In the first scriptural reading, we encounter Elijah, who was approaching the end of his prophetic work. God instructed him to anoint the next king for Israel and to appoint a new prophet who would continue his mission. Elisha, an ordinary farmer, was to be this successor. Directed by God, Elijah met this unsuspecting farmer, busy with his daily work of ploughing, and threw his cloak over him. This clothing with a new garment meant that Elisha was handed the prophetic authority of Elijah and that his life would take on a new course. Even us as Christians, in our own daily routine work, must encounter God and renew our prophetic role.
Elisha understood what he was asked to do. He left his oxen and only requested a time to say goodbye to his parents, which Elijah allowed. Elisha’s farewell was an act of formal separation from his family. Next, Elisha slaughtered his oxen and burned his plough, using these essential tools of his former occupation to cook a meal for the people. By destroying his farming tools and animals, Elisha dramatically breaks with his farming past. He will no longer till the fields but will be an apprentice of the great prophet. By feeding the people, utilising the very items he previously used for farming, Elisha points to a fundamental change in his life mission. He will no longer produce grain and vegetables but will feed the people with God’s word and defend the faith. These drastic actions of Elisha are a symbolic demonstration of his decision to completely alter the direction of his life. The first step in this transformation was a decisive and dramatic break with his past. We, too, as Christians, need a decisive and dramatic break with our past so that we can be transformed and have a new focus in Christ.
The second Scriptural reading is set in the context of a radical and decisive break in the life of Paul the Apostle. In his letter to the Galatians, Paul fiercely defends his view on how one becomes righteous before God. In his pre-Christian life, Paul conscientiously followed the Jewish law and customs, believing that this was the only right way to serve God and be righteous. However, his encounter with the risen Christ changed him and his views dramatically. Paul, once a loyal and zealous defender of the law, became an apostle of Jesus, utterly and fiercely devoted to proclaiming and defending the view that true righteousness can only be achieved by faith in Christ. Such a belief meant a drastic change and a dramatic break with the past for Paul. This zealous and devoted follower of Moses was transformed into an utterly dedicated servant of Christ. As Christians, we are also invited to be zealous followers of Christ and be transformed.
Christian Act in Word of God “Transformation-Decisive Focus”
As Christians, we have a great responsibility. Christianity requires us to follow Christ, and this certainly means difficult choices regarding our ambitions and relationships; it is a call for transformation. Let us consider three aspects of our Transformation and decisive focus on the Lord.
Firstly, the Gospel reading today provides us with Christ, who is an example of a transformation which entails a U-turn in his ministry – Jesus leaves Galilee, a place of his flourishing and successful ministry, to travel to Jerusalem, the city of his impending death. He did so because the accomplishment of his mission did not revolve around the feeding of his own ambitions, but on fulfilling the will of his Father. It was a decisive break from a temporary success to greater glory through the path of suffering, humiliation, and pain. It is this example of Jesus which leads us on to embrace our call to follow the Lord always. The most motivating aspect is the fact that when God calls us for a particular mission, he gives us the grace to transcend the inclinations and attachments which become potential obstacles in carrying out that mission.
Secondly, on our journey of transformation, the necessity to move away from our comfort zones is essential to ensure that we achieve an integral and radical transformation. Our attachment to our comfort zones produces lethargy when we seek progressive conversion in our faith journey. These attachments are not necessarily negative but they usually do not fit into the mission God calls us to. It is certainly not easy to leave behind the various things we are very familiar with. However, the joy we experience at the completion of our God-given mission is often proportional to the extent of the pain we feel when leaving our familiar and comfortable past behind. Like Jesus, Elisha and Paul, our minds must be fixed on the task at hand, which necessitates conversion. This conversion entails decisive breaks, breaks which can be painful but necessary in God’s logic of salvation.
Finally, our decision to follow Jesus enjoins on us to walk in his very footsteps – the humility of Christ. An essential aid for a decisive break is humility in every respect. Jesus left behind his flourishing success in Galilee. Elisha had to leave behind his successful farming activities. Like them, we are also called to leave behind our various inclinations, successes, and comfort zones. Stripping off our inclinations and successes to embrace the task of God may appear unreasonable to the logic of the world, but not in the sight of God who fills our cups with abundant goodness when we empty them of those things which do not fall within the scheme of God’s mission.
Action: By all means, I accept to be transformed and remain focused on the Lord.
Prayer: Gracious Father, we are grateful to you for all the blessings you have endowed us with. Look with favour upon us and grant us to be transformed. Give us the courage to break from our inclinations and so cling to you in every endeavour of our lives. Through Christ our Lord, who calls us to choose him over all our desires and possessions, he who lives and reigns with you forever and ever. Amen.
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