23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time
September 3, 2022
Cathedral of Mary Our Queen
“In Whatever Way”
Years ago, I visited a priest-friend suffering from a debilitating disease. My heart went out to this wonderful human being, this dedicated co-worker. Before illness struck, he was energetic, athletic, vigorous, and outgoing. Now he was confined to the rectory and scarcely able to communicate. I thought he might complain about his plight, but instead he told me that he rejoiced to share in the Lord’s sufferings in some small way. My eyes welled with tears, for in that moment, I realized I was in the presence of a true disciple, a true follower of Jesus Christ.
I thought of my friend when I stumbled upon a verse from the 1st Letter of Peter: “In whatever way you share in the sufferings of Christ, rejoice” (I Peter 4:13). What struck me in that sentence were the words, “…in whatever way” you may suffer. My priest-friend accepted the cross he was to carry unto everlasting life but like many people, I tend to think of the crosses the Lord sends me not as graces but as problems, annoyances, and worries to be overcome… things that ‘burden the soul’ and ‘weigh down the mind’ as to-day’s reading from the Book of Wisdom puts it.
As for sharing in the Cross of Christ – we may tend to think of that in exalted or even grandiose terms – perhaps suffering a grave injustice gladly, or doing something heroic for the Lord. But St. Peter says, “In whatever way you share in the sufferings of Christ, rejoice.” The Lord could call any of us at any time to suffer heroically, but most often he calls us to rejoice as we shoulder our daily burdens – our daily problems, annoyances, and worries… whatever they may be, whatever form they may take, whether they be great or small.
The High Cost of Discipleship
This doesn’t mean that discipleship is easy. In his book, The Cost of Discipleship, the Lutheran Pastor, Dietrich Bonhoeffer warns against cheap grace and discipleship. By that, he means grace without conversion and discipleship without sacrifice. God gives us grace, a share in his life, not merely to affirm us but to cleanse our hearts of sin and to transform our lives with love. Yet not even God can change our hearts unless we give him permission to do so, by continually embracing the truth while striving to reject sin and to live virtuously. Similarly, Christ calls us to follow him as disciples, to share in his life and mission, but this won’t happen until we are prepared to love others as he first loved us, with a generous, sacrificial love that does not count the cost. We need to keep this in mind as we re-read to-day’s Gospel in which Jesus himself speaks to us about the high cost of discipleship. There he tells us that we cannot be his disciples unless we love him more than anyone else in our lives, including our families, and unless we are willing to carry our cross and follow after him. He goes on to say that we cannot truly be his followers so long as we are attached to our possessions and plans. No doubt about it, the cost of discipleship is high.
But, for all of that, discipleship is not out of reach. None of us should think that to-day’s Gospel is meant only for a few, such as monks who live austerely and spend much of their time in prayer, or such as martyrs who heroically sacrifice life itself for the sake of the Gospel. Both paths are luminous examples of grace and discipleship at work, yet, the Gospel that the Church puts before us excludes no one. Instead, it speaks to the concrete reality of our daily lives – replete as they are with blessings, tinged as they are by sin, immersed as they are in the confusion and mischance of the times in which we live. Jesus came to call sinners and he pleads for us at the right hand of the Father. And he calls out to us: “Follow me!” “Take up your cross!” “Do as I have done!” ‘So, in whatever way we are called to share in the sufferings of Christ, let us rejoice!’
What, then, does it take to respond to the Lord’s call to conversion and discipleship? To be sure, we must be willing and active participants in the process. But is it merely a matter of will power on our part, merely a matter of moral resolve? Or is there something else that must overtake in our hearts and minds that will prompt us to welcome and embrace the high cost of discipleship? I believe that to-day’s readings suggest two qualities of mind and heart that prepare us to accept the challenges of conversion and discipleship.
Wisdom and Freedom
The first quality is “wisdom from on high”… As we saw, our first reading from the Book of Wisdom speaks about the uncertainty of life, the problems that beset, the plans that fall apart, the tenuousness of our health, all the many things that burden us body, mind, and spirit. Life confronts us with many things we find difficult to understand and accept. I have often thought that when I get to heaven, if I get to heaven, that I’ll have questions for God, such as, why did you allow this or that thing to happen? But I am reliably informed that there is no complaint department in heaven! No, now is the time to ask the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts his gift of wisdom, that wisdom which opens us up to God’s plan for our lives and for our world, that gift which enables us to see our plans, possessions, and sufferings in the light of Christ’s surpassing love and glory. For the Lord asks us to love him more than family, friends, and self because he loves us like no other, and we experience his love for us only when we willingly shoulder our crosses with a self-giving love like his own.
A second quality we need for costly discipleship is freedom, not merely the freedom to choose this thing over that thing, but the freedom to lay aside our possessions and our plans so as to welcome the Lord’s love into our hearts, to embrace the Savior as our own, and to follow him with an unfettered joy and thanksgiving. This we saw in our second reading from St. Paul’s Letter to Philemon. Paul was imprisoned with a slave named Onésimus and during their incarceration Paul converted him, thus rendering him free to embrace the Lord and to follow him. Although bound by the double shackles of slavery and imprisonment, Onésimus experienced a new and profound interior freedom in the Lord. Thus Paul writes to Philemon, telling him that he regards Onésimus ‘no longer as a slave, but more than a slave, a beloved brother and co-worker.’ Freed from all that encumbers us, we too can rejoice in the Lord as his disciples, in whatever circumstances we may find ourselves.
Conclusion
Why, then, should we rejoice to suffer during our short span of time on this earth? Could it be that the Lord in his wisdom and love calls us to join him in bringing Good News, healing, and liberation to a troubled world? Should we not rejoice to let Christ’s presence spread through us onto a world ‘that often knows him not, has no time for him, scoffs at his love? To be islands of mercy in a sea of indifference? To offer those in need comfort and transformative friendship? To play our part, be it great or small, in the victory of good over evil, life over death? ‘In whatever way we may share in the sufferings of Christ, let us rejoice and be glad.’