Wednesday of the Thirty-first Week in Ordinary Time

http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/110712.cfm

MSF Picnic
2012

In the same way, everyone of you who does not renounce all his possessions cannot be my disciple.


Robert Taylor, in his massive book A Secular Age, describes the most important development of the Protestant Reformation, a message that would eventually be repeated by the Second Vatican Council: All Christians are called to holiness.

During the so-called Axial Age between the sixth century BCE and the 10th century AD, when the world’s major religions appeared, each made heavy demands upon its people, demands that were more idealistic than practical. And so "elites" -- religious specialists -- were called to singular lives of dedication. They were usually celibate and practiced remarkable forms of mortification. Buddhists had their monks: Jews had Essenes; Muslims had dervishes; and Christians had monks, nuns, friars, etc. They provided inspiration to the non-elites who might imitate, in gentler form, their devotion. 

The Reformation attempted to end that elitism among Christians. Everyone is called to “work out your salvation with fear and trembling.” Or, as the Vatican Council described it, “the call to holiness.” 

The word has not spread like wildfire. In my experience, neither the majority of Protestant or Catholic laity is fired up with renouncing all their possessions to be his disciples. Protestants have a slight edge in that those who say they are Protestant go to church at least occasionally; whereas millions of self-described Catholics haven’t entered a church or received a sacrament in decades. 

Both of today’s readings remind us of the challenge of fidelity. 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.Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.

At one time the Church supposed that admonition was addressed only to elite Christians; it was one of the “apostolic exhortations”; but Jesus apparently knew nothing of such distinctions. And we know that, in the history of the church, the laity have suffered persecutions and made heroic sacrifices at least as often as their leaders. 

Following that teaching, Jesus gives two homely examples about following his way of life. Who would build a tower or prepare for war without a thorough, ruthlessly honest inventory of his resources? If you are not prepared to make enormous sacrifices, don’t join this church! If you’re seeking baptism because it’s cool, please go somewhere else. 

Saint Paul echoes Jesus’ challenge with his own instruction,

Do everything without grumbling or questioning, that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation.

As we enter this third millennium, it should be obvious to everyone that the nation and the world need Christians who “shine like lights in the world.” But Christians are no longer a majority living in a Christian country. Because we are a minority, we cannot reasonably expect our federal, state or city governments to conform to Christian values.  A democratic country, to survive, must conform to the values of its people, no matter how bizarre or savage they might be. 

But as a blessed minority Christians are sent to our respective nations to be salt of the earth, yeast in the dough and a city set on a hill. During this third millennium, as the elite class of Christians disappear, the Spirit of God falls on married couples and single adults to be a Chosen People, a Holy Priesthood, and a Nation set apart.