The Cost of Discipleship

Homily for the Fourth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Imagine for a moment, if you will, that you are looking for a new job. You open up the newspaper to the “Help Wanted” section. There you find an advertisement for people to fill the positions of team leaders, administrators, advocates, and various artisans. The ad reads: “Looking for the best and the brightest,  men and women who are noteworthy and accomplished, who possess wisdom and knowledge, with at least two letters of recommendation from industry leaders and people of consequence.” Whoever this employer is, it is obvious that he or she is looking for people who are going to be able to make a mark in the world.

Now I want you to compare that advertisement to the Scriptures that we read today. The prophet Zephaniah addresses himself to the humble of the earth. St. Paul refers to the people of the Christian community of Corinth as not wise by human standards, not powerful, and not of noble birth. He goes further and says that the people who have been baptized and now form this Christian community are weak and lowly. In the Gospel passage that we proclaim today, Jesus calls blessed those who are poor, meek, sad, and hungry.

It’s fairly obvious that this world and the people who like to think that they run it are not looking for the same people as Zephaniah, St. Paul, and Jesus. As a matter fact, throughout the Hebrew Scriptures of the old covenant and the Christian Scriptures of the new, God chooses the least likely to succeed. When he was looking for a spokesperson to stand before the Pharaoh of Egypt and to lead his people out of slavery, he chose Moses, a man with a speech impediment. When God was looking for a king to lead a powerful army, he chose David, a small shepherd boy. When God was choosing the prophets, he chose men from a variety of backgrounds but who had not been all that successful in life. In fact, Jeremiah was a simple teenage boy whom God called to speak out against the king of Israel. When Jesus was choosing his apostles, he chose fishermen, a tax collector, as well as a man who set out to destroy those who followed Jesus. Then he appointed the one who was constantly sticking his foot in his mouth as the leader.

So, the question that the Scriptures pose for us today is, in which group do we see ourselves. With which group would we rather be seen? Would we rather be popular or humble? Would we rather be rich or poor? Are we the kind of people who can be merciful and forgiving? Are we peace makers?

In choosing to follow Jesus, we all have to make a choice about how we will live out our discipleship to Jesus. Following Jesus comes at a cost. Jesus didn’t pull any punches when he enlisted his followers. He told them straight out that He had to come first in their lives, that everything else had to come second. St. Paul explains why that is in his First Letter to the Corinthians. “God chose the foolish of the world to shame the wise, and God chose the weak of the world to shame the strong, and God chose the lowly and despised of the world, those who count for nothing, to reduce to nothing those who are something, so that no human being might boast before God.”

If we choose to follow Jesus, we will appear foolish to the world. We will appear weak and lowly and despised. Those who follow Jesus and obey the commandments will seem to the rest of the world as if they count for nothing. So, from the very beginning, those who desire to be disciples of Jesus must realize and understand that anything that they accomplish will be because God has used them. The great saints in the history of the church have been men and women who let themselves be used as instruments in God’s hand. The very familiar prayer of St. Francis begins in those very words: “Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.” We are all called to be instruments in God’s hands; we are all called to be merciful, to be hungry for justice and peace, to be clean of heart, to be peacemakers – in short, we are all called to be holy.