1. God is bountiful.
But He does not grant to everyone absolutely and indiscriminately heavenly and divine gifts. He gives, only, to those who are worthy to receive them; to those who are free from the stains of wickedness.
There were three young men who wanted to follow Christ. Every thing seems to be in order when the three expressed their desire to follow Christ. Yet not one was considered qualified to follow Christ. This is quite disconcerting in that if these three men who expressed their desire to follow Christ were disqualified, what will you expect of those who do not express any desire to follow Christ. ……like most of us.
Indeed, we must follow Christ. It is a command of Christ who said; deny yourself, take up your cross and follow Me (we saw last Sunday, 12th Sunday in Ordinary time.)
2. First man.
Someone went to Christ and said; ‘I will be your follower wherever you go.’ Unlike the second and third man, this first man was not invited by Christ to follow Him. No one can follow Christ unless he is invited by Christ. No one should be a priest or a bishop without any invitation from Christ. No one can be a Catholic without an invitation. The grace comes from the invitation. Most are priests and bishops by guess work and not by invitation.
Secondly, the situation of the first man is aggravated in that he wanted to follow Christ without first, denying himself and renouncing the affections of this present life; and secondly, without carrying his cross. He will never make it following Christ.
Thirdly, he was presumptuous in that he thought he could follow Christ wherever He goes without Divine help. Like every one he can learn the teachings of Christ. But he cannot follow those teachings without grace because His teachings are incomprehensible.
3. Second man.
This second man was invited by Christ; ‘Come after me,’ Christ said. The man gave an excuse, ‘let me bury my father first.’ The man gave his obligation to recognise human affections to delay his following Christ. As we have seen in the previous post, mere human affections and obligations are among those from which we must deny ourselves to be able to follow Christ. Even mere human affections towards parents and children must be objects of self-denial.
Christ answered; ‘let the dead bury the dead.’ Meaning to say; if you want to save his soul, then you can stay behind. But if you, yourself, do not have Faith, Hope and Charity….how can you save him. You cannot! So don’t bother. Besides, he is dead. There is nothing more you can do except to pray for his soul which you can do while following Me. If it is just burying his remains, any body can do that. Do more important things like following Me.
The obligation towards neighbour, whether parents or children is supernatural Charity. Not the id, ego and super ego of Sigmund Freud. Because they are natural feelings and not of Faith, St. Paul wrote, they are sinful thus the necessity of denying oneself in treasuring such relationships. The acts of true Charity towards our loved ones are much more superior than the pure emotionalism of the Romeos and Juliets.
In Ascetical theology, frequent visits of relatives to seminarians and religious is the first cause of lost of vocations. The usual excuse.
4. Third man.
The third man, like the other two, merely delayed their following of Christ. But Christ sees the heart and He knows that these delay show deeper spiritual problems that made these three men unworthy to follow Christ.
This third man gave this excuse; I will take leave of my people at home. His defect is similar to the second man in that he is attached to pure human relationships. But in his case he recalls all the good times he has with family members and friends, he relives them and would not abandon these past experience.
In his inability to give up these past pleasant memories he desires to relive it in the present or enjoy fantasising these past good times. So he constantly looks back on the past desirous to relive the past. Thus he becomes guilty of being stuck in the past and constantly regrets leaving it.
The classical example is Lot’s wife who looked back and became a pilar of salt. She looked back regretting leaving behind what she had to leave to be saved from the fire and brimstone that would fall on Sodom and Gomorrah. In looking back and refusing to go forward, the third man was not worthy to be given the gift of following Christ.
5. Modern application.
Let us look at the silliest excuses. The adulterer who says; ‘I cannot follow Christ because I just left my wife and I am enjoying my latest sin. Or I cannot follow You because I want to try something new that was last heard in Sodom. Most will not follow Christ for sinful reason. In fact, it has never even crossed their minds to follow Christ.
There is the other who would follow Christ because some secret society had paid them to infiltrate the Church and destroy her when he has been made bishop or even Pope.
Some follow Christ just to be a bishop, which St. Thomas said is a mortal sin. You follow Christ to be a saint. Some like to be a bishop just to succeed Pope Francis and finish his work of abolishing hell; which should make many happy……..for a short while until they land in hell. Because you cannot abolish hell even through a papal exhortation.
But seriously speaking, what are the most popular reason for not following Christ; well, because they are so busy welcoming immigrants destined to destroy their culture, religion and their lives. Others are busy preventing global warming, not knowing that God is just heating the stove for sinners. Others are busy propagating communism under the guise of building the church of the poor. Others want, first, to make the Mass interesting by making it a vaudeville show.
But as the Gospel depicted, the most common excuse that even sounds holy just like the two gentlemen’s excuses is love for pure human relationship; love for humans like Tony Palmer, for Pentecostals, for Scalfari, for Jews, for communist and immigrants, for Waldesians, for Castro and Obama, for gays and transgenders……all purely human emotionalism of high public relation value but of utterly no salvific value.
He who puts his hands on the plow and distracts himself with a thousand worldly things is unfit for the reign of God. The wife of Lot left all worldly things then looked back….and was punished for it. We have not left the world at all and are very much engrossed in it. In such a state we cannot look forward to following Christ…..we from Pope Francis to the youngest child. Proof? We all do not have the signs of the true Church of Christ.
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