Today’s readings: 1 Kings 19, 16.19-21; Galatians 5, 1. 13-18; Luke 9, 51-62.
Following Jesus has never been easy going, though in times when mainstream culture was over-religious it was conventional to be Christian. But at the time of Jesus and in our times, discipleship as portrayed in the gospels is anything but something conventional. It is counter-cultural, demanding and radical.
In today’s second reading from Galatians, St Paul writes that we were called to liberty. When Christ freed us, he writes, he meant us to remain free. The call of Jesus makes us free, but it demands of itself our interior freedom in order for us to be in a position to hear the calling.
Freedom is actually what completes our life, what makes us whole. Having experienced in life the interior freedom, as Paul warns, we need to stand firm in order not to submit again to the yoke of slavery. One can accept freely, through a personal choice, to enter a commitment. Yet, depending on one’s attitude and approach, that can end up being a prison one chooses to live in.
The heart of today’s gospel is not that the calling to be disciples of Jesus robs us of what otherwise can make life colourful. Jesus never calls to estrange us from our home but rather to give us a home where we can truly and fully belong. As we can gather from today’s gospel, it is “looking back” that weighs down on choices made. Looking back can be nostalgia, but it can be also regret for decisions taken. Looking back entangles our freedom, blocks our venturing joyfully in life as it unfolds.
As humans we all suffer in life from disconnection. But the less we are connected to our own self, the more we experience disconnection with the world around us. On the contrary, the more we are connected with ourselves, the less we suffer from disconnection with others. What Luke is highlighting mostly in this section of his gospel which focuses mainly on discipleship, is how determining it becomes in one’s life when one is really and deeply connected to one’s own self.
It is in that connection that we experience true freedom, that we are ready for take off. It was in a context like this that “Jesus resolutely took the road to Jerusalem”. That is a standpoint which, when reached in life, gives us interior freedom, making us resolute not to look back, not to count the pain but rather to let the gain give us the true perspective on what life can become.
This is Elisha’s experience in the first reading. Elijah the prophet “threw his cloak over him”, passing on a legacy to him, and Elisha felt so free that the oxen and the plough, up to that moment his entire existence, became redimensioned for him and his entire life took a radical turn.
Unless this turning point occurs in life, we remain backward-looking, never completely free, submissive to forces that amount to what Paul calls “the yoke of slavery”. This is the turning point that so much needed in life and that may make a marriage truly function, or enliven the life of those ministering to God’s people through the priesthood or other forms of service. It is the turning point of discipleship rediscovered.
Whatever we are called to do in life will continue to weigh down on us negatively unless first we become disciples. Discipleship as proposed by Jesus offers the true perspective that sets the tone in life. If that is lacking, then we are in trouble, because much of what we do risks turning sour and becoming even unbearable. The Lord himself becomes distant, out of reach, difficult to bear with, his words too demanding, expecting the impossible.
In life we cannot live with divided loyalties. Jesus sounds very demanding, yet he is only urging on us to prioritise our loyalties. Whoever we are and whatever we do in life, we have to face, like Jesus, the road to Jerusalem. That remains the challenge in the face of which we cannot afford to remain blocked in our past or nostalgic of securities. The road to Jerusalem in this sense is not an outward pilgrimage towards who knows where, but an inward journey that connects us more to our own self and makes us come to terms with who we really are called to be.
There is a new being in each and every one of us awaiting to be born. That is precisely what Jesus is making us figure out about ourselves.