The Wisdom of God: 23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time
Sermon by Emmanuel Suntheni OSB – Twenty-Third Sunday In Ordinary Time – Year C
Sermon and Christian Act In The Word
Theme: Everlasting Happiness! The Wisdom from God! Blessings cannot be compared!
Point of Reflection: Where do I get my happiness? Will my happiness last forever? Do I compare my happiness and my blessings? What gives me joy in my daily living? Where do I find guidelines for a lasting, happy life? The scriptural readings of today give answers to these questions. It is from the Wisdom of God, and your blessings are your blessings; only human beings can delay them. Be happy! And true happiness is found in the Lord!
First Reading: Wisdom of Solomon 9:13–18
Psalm: Psalm 90:3–6, 12–14, 17
Second Reading: Philemon 9–10, 12–17
Gospel: Luke 14:25–33
Sermon (Reflection): The first reading from the book of Wisdom seeks to offer the true meaning of lasting happiness. The author begins by acknowledging that human beings are incapable of fully grasping the mystery of life because their understanding and reasoning are limited and fallible. He attributes this condition to the weakness of the human body, which is perishable and frail. Thus, people are destined to seek sure answers but arrive at incomplete conclusions. If they can “hardly guess” at what is on earth, they can never comprehend the heavenly world. Human wisdom is entirely based on the experiences of this world and, therefore, is earthbound. Since all things of this world are temporary and perishable, human wisdom and reasoning cannot provide answers on how to reach permanent and lasting happiness. It is only by seeking God’s presence and direction for our lives. As Christians, we need to always seek God’s guidance. As St Benedict said: before you start any work or make any important decision, you must always pray to seek God’s guidance.
God gives his wisdom to those who attentively listen to his guidance. Whoever seeks wisdom that leads to lasting happiness must search for it not in the earthly realm but in the divine revelation. A wise person rises above purely human reasoning, opening their eyes to the realities that transcend human concerns and living by the values revealed and taught by God. This is the path to enduring happiness, to salvation.
The second reading of today comes from a short but very personal letter of Paul to one of his converts, Philemon. Philemon must have been a relatively wealthy person, the head of a household and the owner of slaves. One of those slaves, Onesimus, ran away from him. This fugitive met with and was converted to Christianity by Paul, who, henceforth, calls him “my child”. Paul wrote to Philemon with an appeal to accept Onesimus back into the household. His request had a double significance.
What is more significant is that Paul asked Philemon to accept Onesimus as a “beloved brother”. He did not ask Philemon to liberate Onesimus from slavery altogether. Instead, he made a request that was even more challenging and truly revolutionary. At the time, slaves were not considered human beings but objects, “things” to be used and discarded when no longer needed. To accept Onesimus as his brother, Philemon made a radical change in his thinking and treated a slave as a person equal in dignity and humanity to himself. As Christians, if we want everlasting happiness, then we need to love and treat well our fellow human beings who are our brothers and sisters. We need to accept each other, and we will live in happiness.
In the Gospel reading of today, Jesus provides three essential guidelines which ought to shape the lives of his followers seeking salvation. The first is a command to come to Jesus and “hate” one’s family and even one’s life. In the language of Jesus’ time, the word translated as “hate” carried the meaning of “love less” or “prefer less” (cf. Matthew 10:37; Genesis 29:30-31). Speaking of “hating” one’s family and one’s life, Jesus teaches that loyalty to him holds priority over loyalty to the family and even to preserving one’s life. Lasting happiness can be reached by setting Jesus as the first priority in one’s life. This is our calling as Christians, to set Christ as our priority and live a life of not hurting any other person.
The second guideline commands Jesus’ followers to carry his or her cross. Jesus literally carried his cross to the place of crucifixion. For his followers, this implies that they must adhere to Jesus in the circumstances of adversity and suffering when discipleship becomes costly and even life-threatening. Lasting happiness is reached by adhering to Jesus equally in the good and in the bad times. Are you carrying your cross? Some of us are too busy? As Christians, we are called to carry our own crosses!
The third guideline calls for renouncing one’s possessions. Luke consistently sees attachment to material things as the main threat and obstacle to discipleship. This is yet another call for making Jesus the priority. To make his point more forceful, Jesus demands that his disciples give up “all possessions”. This exaggeration serves to emphasise that there can be no divided loyalties in the disciple’s life. Jesus must be the sole focus for life and the chief concern, with possessions and wealth relegated to a far distant, secondary role. As Christians, we are invited to detach ourselves from worldly things and attach ourselves to the Lord.
The passage ends with a warning. A builder constructing a tower without sufficient funds and a king going to war without proper preparation would be fools and a laughingstock. Similarly, those who come to Jesus without taking the cost of discipleship into account will fail. The pursuit of lasting happiness involves making tough choices, setting priorities, embracing suffering, and renouncing greed. Following these guidelines is the choice of the wise. This is a difficult teaching, but one that reflects the divine wisdom for which the Psalmist prayed in the words, “teach us to count our days that we may gain a wise heart.”
Christian Act in Word of God “Everlasting Happiness – count your blessings”
A good friend of mine Natty called me last week and told me that she has received the laptop I sent, and said, “I don’t see the manual book and it is hard to operate, please share the manual book”. Our Christian life needs a manual book. The manual book of our Christian life is the wisdom of God. The manual for an authentic Christian life is the wisdom of God, which ultimately leads to eternal happiness. The readings of today point out how we may attain this necessary wisdom of God. Divine wisdom is that which we attain by seeking the presence of God through self-emptying of our unhealthy ambitions, replacing them with virtues such as equality, forgiveness, and self-sacrifice.
God created humanity in his own image. This fact gives us the possibility of gaining access to God’s divine wisdom, which is necessary for responding to God’s saving initiative. The wisdom of God is freely given to those who seek it with sincerity and reach for it through perseverance. Though we are limited in many ways, God gives us the necessary help to rise above the boundaries of the material world and into the sphere of divine wisdom, which orients our life towards its true goal – eternal happiness.
Despite the limits and frailty of our flesh, divine wisdom is accessible because of the image of God which has been imprinted on us.
Divine wisdom leads to setting the right priorities in life. The life of an authentic Christian involves making Jesus our first priority. Jesus must be placed before everything else. To place Jesus first means making Jesus the point of reference in all we do. It is a call to be ready to renounce all that weakens our commitment to Christ and to follow him, even in suffering. The divine wisdom teaches that when we embrace weakness, we gain tranquillity, even to the point of being dignified when we are humiliated. The world might consider us failures when we pursue this kind of wisdom. But the crown of eternal happiness awaits us who persevere in the pursuit and practice of this wisdom.
Finally, we attain divine wisdom when we follow Jesus in all sincerity and remain connected to him at all times. We must be aware of the cost of following Jesus so that we may not be overwhelmed by the various experiences that undermine our loyalty to him. To follow Jesus is to make tough choices, set priorities, embrace suffering, and renounce greed. It also means our values must be consistent with our choices, desires and needs. This is the way of the wise in the eyes of God, and this leads to lasting happiness.
Action: This week, I open my heart and mind to follow the wisdom of God all the time.
Prayer: All-powerful Father, the source of divine wisdom, we thank you for blessing us with your treasury of wisdom. Graciously grant us the grace to resist the allurement of this world and focus on your true wisdom and true happiness. Open our hearts and minds to attain everlasting happiness through your only son, Jesus Christ, Amen.
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