Dear Brothers and Sisters,
The Word of God comes today to inspire us, and we know the Word does not return to God without nourishing those to whom it is sent. However, it is possible to be in the church and not hear the Word. It is true that I am a sinner and often I don’t know how much I need the Word of God. After I finish the Eucharist and go home and by the day after tomorrow my life returns to what it was, somehow the devil has robbed me of the good news. Do you remember the parable of the sower? One will listen with enthusiasm, but the devil comes and snatches it away from him. Or he will lose it because the cares of life or the desire for money takes the Word away.
Every week the same thing can happen. That is why I invite you that if this Word has helped you then keep it close to you throughout the week. What we receive on Sunday should make the week more efficacious. Keep in mind that the Word of God has to be chewed on over and over again. Did you know that cows have four stomachs, so their food is well masticated as it moves from stomach to stomach. This is what a Christian is called to do: to reflect on the Word and what it is saying to us so that little by little it goes deeper into us.
If the Lord gives us this Word today it is because he knows we will need it this week. This week you will be helped by what you hear on Sunday. For example, this week the Word will invite you to lose your life so that you can gain it. If you are always looking after your life, you will lose it. That is why the Lord gives us this Word because you will need it. How I wish all of us can say blessed are those who listen to the Word of God and guard it in their hearts. It is important to listen to it first because if we don’t hear it we cannot guard it.
All the readings today contain a promise like we heard in the first reading that this time next year this woman of influence will have a son. She and her husband do a small favor for Elisha and provide a room for him and suddenly this barren woman is promised a child. The psalm also has a promise that ‘I will sing of the goodness of the Lord.’ The tense of the verb is in the future: you will sing the goodness of the Lord. Perhaps today you cannot sing or rejoice in God’s goodness because you don’t have an experience of it, but one day you will.
The third promise is in the second reading where it says that by baptism we were buried with Christ so just as he rose from the dead for the glory of the Father, you too will have a new life. Do you want to have a new life, or do you want to continue with the life you have? With a new life you are still married to the wife you have so don’t get your hopes up! By a new life you are not going to change the husband or the children you have, no, no! You will have a new heart to love them as they are. Instead of the heart of stone, you will have a new heart, a heart of flesh. This will give you a new life, a risen life.
Christ does not put conditions on the promises that he gives us. He doesn’t say that if you want to be my friend you have to do this or that or if not, go away. It is not this way. You might do that with your kids or with your spouse, but God does not do this. Jesus Christ is not like this. Your boss acts this way or your friends, but this is the way of the world. If you don’t meet these conditions, you are fired. If you don’t listen to your parents, then they will favor another sibling. It is not like this with Jesus Christ. He calls you to follow him. He does not say, then you have to do this or that or if you deny me then forget about it.
The Lord says to the apostles, ‘follow me’ and then they leave their father and their nets, and they follow him. It is not because Christ made them do it. He says, ‘follow me’ and the Holy Spirit acts in each one of them and helped them to stay close to him. It is not a moralism. Yet if someone hearing this gospel with a legalistic mindset and without faith, he would say this is crazy. These people must be crazy. This is for people who live on a different planet. How can he say the one who loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me.
What is the Lord saying to me in this gospel? He is not saying do not love your children or your parents or your friends. He is saying put God above all your earthly loves. This Word is only fulfilled by Jesus Christ. He is not saying: you have to do this! I demand this of you if you are really a Christian. He already did it on the cross. He nailed our affections on the cross and he gave up his life in order to gain yours. He is the one who lost his life in order to find it. What life did he find? He found a life for you and for me. He lost his life, but he found yours. Do you realize this? Look at the cross and see what he has done. Let’s see if we can enter this new way of being that the Lord offers us. He wants to make of you a new person and give you a new life.
Think for a moment what it means to be a Christian. To be a Christian is to lose your life. If you don’t want to do that, then don’t follow me. If you don’t want to carry your cross, you think it is too much, then don’t follow me, because a Christian is one who carries his/her cross. A Christian is one who really loses his life in order to save it. This is so profound. But if one day you would like to put God before your kids, then you understood this Word. He wants to tell us that this is wonderful and relax because he will do it. This is not a moralism, that you have to do it! He will make you a new person and free you from your sadness. Because if you believe that life is in your children, or in your parents, or life for you is to have money and be successful and get the best job, then you are more wrong than anyone else.
If you have experienced this emptiness when you thought you would be happy when you got a new car and then after you got it you were still dissatisfied. The same happened when you got married or got a new house that was bigger and more beautiful and had a huge yard. Even after getting it, you have the experience that your life is still hell, and you were looking for life selfishly in these things and now you are going to die today or in 50 or 60 or 80 years. You spent your life in this way, then you lost it. Don’t live one day more in this way, only loving yourself and that is why you were never happy. It is true for all of us.
There were moments of happiness, but they were fleeting because you did not have eternal life, eternal happiness within you. You were happy when you were married and had your son and bought your car and got a better house but these moments, brothers and sisters, did not give you true happiness and so you will be frustrated if you do not embrace this word.
This word tells us that Christ will give us true happiness, little by little, little by little, uniting ourselves to Him who loves us and doesn’t demand anything from us. I encourage you because today the Lord tells us if you want to be a Christian, this is what to do. You may like it or not like it but if you embrace this word, you will be happy, if you follow him.