Luke 14: 25-33 (Sunday, September 9, 2007 – Twenty Third Sunday in Ordinary Time)

What is the most important priority of your life? Perhaps it is your job, your children, your spouse, or even your hobbies. Where your treasure is, that is where your heart is. Jesus in the gospel of today says, that he is our number one priority. For Christian people, Jesus Christ is our primary and most important priority. He says it clearly that we must abandon our priorities and take up our crosses and follow him.

Jesus Christ in this gospel does not underestimate the Cross. He himself is heading down to Jerusalem where he shall embrace his cross. He realizes that the Christian journey comes with a lot of crosses. If he is our priority, we must embrace the crosses. He uses the analogy of the man who wants to build a house and sits down to calculate the cost of building. We all know many people who started projects that they did not finish. It may be that degree program, or that building project. It may even be that we tried to quit smoking or drinking, but we did not complete the task. As I drive on I-68 to Washington DC every month, shortly before Cumberland Maryland, I see the Noah’s Ark that is being rebuilt by the Ark of God Church. There is a big sign, “Noah’s Ark being rebuilt here.” That uncompleted Ark has been there for many years. That uncompleted ark in Frostburg, Maryland was started in 1976 by Pastor Richard Greene. Pastor Greene believes he will complete the Ark someday and hopefully would be young enough to issue people into the Ark when the end time comes. But there is no work going on in the Ark. Timothy Beal in his book, “Roadside Religion” discusses this ark in a full chapter. He describes it as a “work in progress without progress.” They may be many reasons why the Ark is not yet completely. It could be financial reasons; lack of contractors to carry on the work; it may even be lack of commitment to the project from members of the Church. Whatever the reasons are, they are irrelevant to us. We must attack the reasons head-on. I remember that commercial, “Head-on apply directly where it hurts.”

As Christian people, they may be many reasons why we cannot continue our journey towards discipleship: it may be our children; it may be our spouse, it may be our parents; it may be our profession. The question remains, who are you primarily committed to? Jesus invites us to hate brother, sister, family, professions in order to follow him. This should not be taken literally. What Jesus is rather inviting us to, is to clear all obstacles that stand on our way from being his true disciples. Jesus Christ is not the one we called on only when we have a big disaster in the family, a terrible disease, a divorce, a child going wild, etc. He should be the central part of our family every day. He should be the number one priority. When we make him the central part of our lives, we don’t wait for him to come only when there is a disaster or problem, for he is present to prevent the disaster from happening. I hear people tell me all the day, we cannot come to Mass because our children have a football game or piano lessons; they claim they rarely have time to pray because they have to run around with their children from one activity to the next. You have to reevaluate your priorities.

Perhaps Jesus Christ is not the priority in your family. You have to cut off all those things that prevent you from carrying your daily Cross to follow Jesus. This may mean cutting down on the number of activities your children are involved in; this may mean cutting off from certain friends who all they know is negativity, infusing your life with a lot of negative attitudes; this may mean giving up a job that pays you well, yet, you are led to compromise your Christian values every day. With Christianity, you cannot play at both teams in one game. You cannot eat your cake and at the same time have it. You have to chose a side that you belong to. Here comes the distinction between being a follower of Christ and a disciple of Christ. Jesus Christ had many followers, but not many disciples. The followers were those who were there to take something off from him – perhaps healing. They followed him just because he was a super star. He was a popular man who healed so many people and performed a lot of miracles. They were not in anyway committed to him. They would be like most people who would buy a ticket to see Paris Hilton if she came to town. They are not in any way committed to her or what she does. They just want to be in the presence of a celebrity. These are just followers. The disciples are those who are committed to Jesus. They are ready to die for him and they want to live out his message radically in the world.

We the Christian people at St. Margaret Mary Church are called to be disciples and not just followers of Christ. We are invited to enter into a committed relationship with Jesus Christ. We begin our Parish School of Religion this weekend. What are your priorities? Jesus Christ must become the priority of your family. We wonder sometimes why our Children grow up not living the faith, it is because we failed to help them live the faith radically when they were growing up. How will the child learn the faith when you rather take him or her to a basketball game on Sunday morning rather than bring the child to Church for religion classes; how will the child be committed to Jesus Christ if you do not help the child to get to know Jesus when the child was growing up. You sit down at home on Sunday morning and even if you would not come to church, you refuse to bring the child to Sunday School. We are beginning a new year of the Parish School of Religion, you must look at your priorities and place Jesus Christ at the very top. Mass attendance and attendance at Sunday school is not what you squeeze in after you have put together your plan for the year. It must be something you arrange all your other plans for the year around.

This is the invitation from Jesus Christ today to you. If you truly want to be the person he has called you to be, you must accept this invitation.