By Father Paul Nord, O.S.B.
Sunday Scripture
First Reading: Wisdom 9:13-18b; Response: Psalm 90:3-6, 12-14, 17; Second Reading: Philemon 9-10, 12-17; Gospel: Luke 14:25-33
From the Book of Wisdom, our first reading is about the pursuit of wisdom. Seeking wisdom is essential to living a righteous life and to being in right relationship with the Lord God. But these verses recognize the limited ability of the human person to seek wisdom.
First, how can we recognize or “conceive what the LORD intends?” Second, if we recognize true wisdom, our decisions to act upon wisdom “are timid” and our plans are “unsure.” Third, our body is “corruptible” — it “weighs down the mind that has many concerns.”
The next verses return to the theme that wisdom is something “we find with difficulty.” God is spoken to directly: “who ever knew your counsel, except you had given wisdom and sent your holy spirit from on high?” This resolves the question — wisdom is a gift from God. Wisdom is not acquired by human searching alone. God sends his “holy spirit” which gives wisdom to frail humanity. Because of God’s gift of wisdom, “the paths of those on earth (were) made straight.”
The Responsorial, Psalm 90, emphasizes the shortness of human life. The psalmist says to God: “You turn man back to dust, saying, ‘Return, O children of men.’” This contrasts with God’s eternal nature: “For a thousand years in your sight are as yesterday, now that it is past, or as a watch of the night.”
The second stanza continues reflecting on the brevity of human life: “You make an end of them in their sleep.” For emphasis, the psalm compares our lives to “the changing grass” which “springs up” at dawn, but “wilts and fades” when evening comes. Isaiah 40:6-8 has a similar message: “All flesh is grass, and all their loyalty like the flower of the field … Yes, the people are grass! The grass withers, the flower wilts, but the word of our God stands forever.”
Midway through the third stanza, the focus turns: “Return, O LORD! How long? Have pity on your servants!” This section (90:12-17) pleads for God to act on behalf of his people. It concludes: “Prosper the work of our hands!”
St. Paul’s letter to Philemon appears only once every three years in our Sunday readings. In this letter, Paul is asking Philemon to release from slavery Onesimus, who was Philemon’s slave. The Roman society of Paul’s time would have found his request to be quite radical and counter-cultural.
Paul tells Philemon the reasons for his request. Paul calls Onesimus “my child.” Onesimus has become Christian due to Paul’s preaching of the Gospel. So, Paul describes Onesimus as “whose father I have become in my imprisonment.” Paul repeatedly mentions his own imprisonment. Paul invokes his own suffering for the Gospel as a reason for Philemon to obey Paul’s request.
Paul says that sending Onesimus back to Philemon is like sending “my own heart, back to you.” Paul’s deep affection for Onesimus shows that living Christ’s Gospel makes all social divisions irrelevant. Paul is socially privileged as a Roman citizen. Onesimus is a low-status slave. But Paul treats Onesimus as his own child because of their shared salvation in Christ Jesus. Paul wishes for Philemon to treat Onesimus with similar dignity. After all, Philemon had received the Gospel of Christ from Paul’s preaching. Thus, Philemon and Onesimus were both spiritual sons of Paul.
It is not clear why Onesimus had been living away from Philemon’s household. Had Onesimus fled, or had he left with Philemon’s consent? Regardless, Onesimus had become Christian, just like Philemon. They were now brothers in Christ — equally sons of God. So, Paul asks Philemon to recognize Onesimus “no longer as a slave but more than a slave, a brother, beloved especially to me, but even more so to you.”
Paul wants Philemon to make this free choice: to liberate Onesimus from slavery. As Paul writes to Philemon: “I did not want to do anything without your consent, so that the good you do might not be forced but voluntary.”
In today’s Gospel, Jesus teaches that being his disciple is not easy. “Great crowds” are following Jesus and listening to his words. But Jesus warns them that being his disciple requires much sacrifice. Jesus says: “If anyone comes to me without hating his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.”
Here “hating” is a hyperbolic way of saying that Jesus’ disciple must love God’s kingdom more than he loves even his “father, mother … and even his own life.” Matthew’s Gospel has a close parallel which makes this clear: “Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me, and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me” (Matthew 10:37).
Jesus’ first statement is clarified by his next statement: “Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.” Note that Matthew’s parallel account (10:38) also connects these two statements. With this second statement, Jesus points to his own crucifixion, but also insists that his disciples must undergo similar suffering.
Jesus makes a third statement: “Anyone of you who does not renounce all his possessions cannot be my disciple.” This continues Jesus’ teaching that sacrifice is essential for his disciples, but also creates a contrast between earthly possessions and the kingdom of God. Being Jesus’ disciple takes absolute priority over both earthly possessions and earthly relationships (father, mother, etc.). God’s kingdom will bring a “new heaven and new earth” (Revelation 21:1). Instead of clinging to the things of this present life, being Jesus’ disciple means placing our loyalty and focus on receiving God’s kingdom.
Before his third statement about discipleship, Jesus gives two images: 1) the construction of a tower, and 2) a king marching into battle. In both cases, one should not begin the task unless it can be successfully completed. Similarly, Jesus wants his disciples to persevere to the end. When we begin to follow Jesus, we need to commit to the necessary sacrifices.