Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Sunday, June 26, 2022

First Reading: 1 KINGS 19:16, 19-21

Second Reading: GALATIANS 5:1, 13-18

Gospel: LUKE 9:51-62

Theme: Call of Elisha and our vocation

During the First Reading, we heard how the Lord commanded Elijah to anoint Elisha the son of Shaphat to succeed him. In obedience to God, Elijah set out to find Elisha. When he found him, he was ploughing with 12 yoke of oxen. From this, we can say that Elisha was by no means poor. Elijah approached Elisha and threw his mantle upon him. Since the mantle represents the personality and authority of its owner, its casting over Elisha meant that Elisha now belonged to Elijah. Elisha is being formally invested with authority as a prophet to succeed him. Elisha correctly perceived that God was calling him to become a prophet. How did he respond?

At first, Elisha asked for permission to go and say goodbye to his parents. Elijah responded, “what have I done to you?” While this response of Elijah suggests that he has nothing to do with him, it holds spiritual meaning for us; it was not Elijah that was calling Elisha, but God Himself. As a sign of break with his past occupation, he slaughtered the oxen and used his farming equipment to make a fire on which he boiled their flesh. Then he shared the meat to his neighbours and then followed Elijah. The message is clear; it is God who takes the first initiative to call and the call of God demands a radical response. 

The Gospel takes us to a deeper meaning of what it means to respond to the call of God and follow Christ. To follow Christ is to share in the very life of Christ who was poor, obedient and chaste. Luke tells us Jesus resolutely turned his face towards Jerusalem. He was going toward His destiny. His destiny was to suffer and die for us on the cross of Calvary in loving obedience to the will of the Father.

We all want to follow Jesus, but in doing that we want to lay down conditions. In our Gospel passage, the first man that came to Jesus, came with economic expectations. Aware of his inner motivation, Jesus quickly warned him that he does not pay salaries, that his life is a life of poverty, without even a place to lay His head. The first condition for following Jesus is poverty; a radical detachment from everything material. The second excused himself to go and bury his father first. Jesus replied, “Leave the dead to bury their dead; your duty is to go and spread the news of the kingdom of God.” ‘Leave the dead to bury their dead,’ was a popular proverb used for saying that one has to be radical in one’s decision. Our decision to follow Jesus must be so radical that it is as though we are dead to our personal affairs. We live only to obey. To the one who said to him, “I will follow you, but first let me go and say goodbye to my people at home,” Jesus replied, “once the hand is laid on the plough, no one who looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.” Here Jesus laid out another important condition for following him; single-minded dedication. This is also interpreted to point to the vow of chastity. St. Paul said, ‘I don’t want you to have any concerns. The unmarried man is concerned with the affairs of the Lord how to please Him. The same for the unmarried woman and virgin. But the married are concerned to please the other and and concerned with the world (1Cor 7: 31-34). Implicated here is the theme of freedom.

In the second reading from the letter of St Paul to the Galatians, Paul distinguishes between true freedom and licence. There is nothing like freedom in the abstract. We are free from something in order to be free for something. Israel was freed from slavery in Egypt so that they can worship God in freedom. Christ has freed us from slavery to sin that we may worship him in freedom. He is not free, whoever is encumbered by anything; material or emotional. That is why Jesus insists that those following him must abandon all material or psychological securities, walking ever forward without looking back.

Not everyone is called to leave everything and follow Christ. While some are called to leave everything, others are called to use their resources to serve the ends of the kingdom of God.

Reflect today on what God is asking of you to do. Supporting our mission makes you a partaker in the spiritual gains of our mission. My dear brothers and sisters, responding to God’s call involves a radical self-surrender, detachment from people and whatever can distract us from the mission. Renouncing everything to follow Jesus or making a great sacrifice for the missions can only be born of the faith conviction that God Himself is our security, the kingdom of God is our greatest goal and is the fulfilment of all our desires.

God bless you!

Fr Chidi Onwuka M,Ss.Cc