Homily, 13th Sunday of Ordinary Time, Cycle C
Fr. Paul D. Williams, Jr. (St. Joseph's, 6/26/2010)
In the Gospel today, our Lord reminds us of the cost of discipleship. On his last journey to Jerusalem, where he will take up his Cross and offer himself for our salvation, he encounters three men who could be disciples. While their motivations may have been good, our Lord wanted to help them understand exactly what discipleship means.
To the first, he says, “Foxes have dens and birds of the sky have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to rest his head.” Discipleship is costly. You will not find rest or security, but only hardship and the Cross.
The second, invited by Jesus personally, responds to the invitation with a condition, “Lord, let me go first and bury my father.” Caring for ones parents is a noble vocation, a fulfillment of the Fourth Commandment, “Honor your father and mother.” But perhaps this duty would take many years in which this potential disciple could revisit the opportunity Jesus is offering. The invitation was now, and trust was required. “Let the bed bury the dead. But you, go and proclaim the Kingdom of God.” The beautiful thing about saying “yes” now is that “all these things will be given you besides.” Following Christ doesn't mean abandoning one's obligations, but that God will supply for your needs. One of the first duties I had as a priest was to bury my Father, who died of cancer nine months after I was ordained. The Archbishop was kind enough to ordain me early so that my father could be present before his cancer made it difficult for him. And I was able to begin my ministry and care for my father together. His death was all the more beautiful because as a family, we were able to see it in the context of our vocations as disciples of Christ.
To the third, who wants to say goodbye to his family, Jesus says, “No one who sets a hand to the plow and looks to what was left behind is fit for the Kingdom of God.” Like the second, God will carry your family and loved ones along with you on the journey of discipleship. Like the farmer who begins plowing and cannot take his eyes off his goal, else the line will turn out crooked, you cannot divert your eyes from Christ. The disciple does not ask “what if?”, but “what now?” We have a goal that we can reach through faithfulness to our vocations.
One good example of the Cost of Discipleship in the modern era was a Lutheran pastor who wrote a book with that title. He not only wrote it, he lived it.
[The following story is redacted from several common stories summarizing Bonhoeffer's life, and much information is available on the Internet. Here is the book, The Cost of Discipleship, and here is an outline of Bonhoeffer's life.]
Dietrich Bonhoeffer was a pastor, theologian, and teacher. A German, he lived during the rise of Nazi Germany and saw the terrible tragedy that was approaching Europe. Interestingly, the pastor had safely escaped the troubles in Europe and gone to teach in New York in June, 1939. He abruptly returned less than a month later saying: “I have had time to think and to pray about my situation, and that of my nation, and to have God's will for me clarified. I have come to the conclusion that I have made a mistake in coming to America. I shall have no right to participate in the reconstruction of the Christian life in Germany after the war if I did not share in the trials of this time with my people. Christians in Germany face the terrible alternative of willing the defeat of their nation in order that civilization may survive, or willing the victory of their nation and thereby destroying civilization. I know which of these alternatives I must choose. But I cannot make that choice in security.”
On his return, pastor Bonhoeffer was involved in the German underground, or resistance to Hitler and the Nazis. He was condemned for his involvement in “Operation 7”, a rescue mission that had helped a small group of Jews over the German border and into Switzerland. The 39-year-old theologian had also been involved in planning an unsuccessful assassination attempt on the life of Adolf Hitler. His participation in the murder plot obviously conflicts with Bonhoeffer's position as a pacifist. His sister-in-law, Emmi Bonhoeffer, cited his reasoning. He told her: “If I see a madman driving a car into a group of innocent bystanders, then I can't, as a Christian, simply wait for the catastrophe and then comfort the wounded and bury the dead. I must try to wrestle the steering wheel out of the hands of the driver.” His vocation called him to action.
Bonhoeffer, even while in prison, maintained his pastoral role. Those who were with him spoke of the guidance and spiritual inspiration he gave not only to fellow inmates but to prison guards as well. He didn't look back, but remained faithful to his vocation. In a letter smuggled out of prison Bonhoeffer showed no bitterness but rather explained how, “We in the resistance have learned to see the great events of world history from below, from the perspective of the excluded, the ill treated, the powerless, the oppressed and despised... so that personal suffering has become a more useful key for understanding the world than personal happiness.”
Bonhoeffer went calmly to his death. The morning as he was led out of his cell, he was observed by the prison doctor who said: “Through the half-open door I saw Pastor Bonhoeffer still in his prison clothes, kneeling in fervent prayer to the Lord his God. The devotion and evident conviction of being heard that I saw in the prayer of this intensely captivating man moved me to the depths.”
In his book, The Cost of Discipleship, pastor Bonhoeffer coins a term that is used commonly in the Christian world today as a wake-up call to authentic discipleship, he calls it “Cheap Grace” versus “Costly Grace.”
He explains it this way, “Cheap grace is the deadly enemy of our church. We are fighting today for costly grace. Cheap grace means grace sold on the market … Cheap grace means the justification of sin without the justification of the sinner... [In other words, excusing sin but not recognizing the Gospel's transformative power.] Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, Communion without confession, absolution without personal confession. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate.”
He definies Costly rgace this way, “Costly grace is the treasure hidden in the field; for the sake of it a man’ will gladly go and self all that he has. It is the pearl of great price to buy which the merchant will sell all his goods. It is the kingly rule of Christ, for whose sake a man will pluck out the eye which causes him to stumble, it is the call of Jesus Christ at which the disciple leaves his nets and follows him.”
“Costly grace is the gospel which must be sought again and again and again, the gift which must be asked for, the door at which a man must knock. Such grace is costly because it calls us to follow, and it is grace because it calls us to follow Jesus Christ. It is costly because it costs a man his life, and it is grace because it gives a man the only true life. It is costly because it condemns sin, and grace because it justifies [makes new] the sinner. Above all, it is costly because it cost God the life of his Son: “you were bought at a price,” and what has cost God much cannot be cheap for us. Above all, it is grace because God did not reckon his Son too dear a price to pay for our life, but delivered him up for us. Costly grace is the Incarnation of God.”
Those words are particularly important: “God did not reckon his Son too dear a price to pay for our life...” Echoing St. John, pastor Bonhoeffer reminds us that God loves each of us individually and uniquely, beyond measure. So much so that he gave his only Son for our sakes, so that we might share in the “only true life” that Christ came to give us.
He concludes, “Costly grace is the sanctuary of God; it has to be protected from the world, and not thrown to the dogs. It is therefore the living word, the Word of God, which he speaks as it pleases him. Costly grace confronts us as a gracious call to follow Jesus. It comes as a word of forgiveness to the broken spirit and the contrite heart. Grace is costly because it compels a man to submit to the yoke of Christ and follow him; it is grace because Jesus says: 'My yoke is easy and my burden is light.'”
The invitation to live our vocation is given by Christ, “Follow me” and explained simply by St. Paul, “the whole law is fulfilled in one statement, namely, 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.'” This love is costly. As true disciples, we respond with our whole hearts, embracing God's will for our lives, and going forth to “proclaim the Kingdom of God” in today's world.
