Ordinary Time

Catholic TV Mass Online September 4, 2016: 23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time

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• published: 03 Sep 2016
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Presider: Fr. Justin Lopina Parish: St. Frances Cabrini and IC/St. Mary's Parishes Choir: West Allis Tri Parish www.HeartoftheNation.org TEXT FROM THE GOSPEL AND HOMILY The Lord be with you. And with your spirit. A reading from the Holy Gospel according to Luke. Glory to you o Lord. Great crowds were traveling with Jesus and he turned and addressed them, “If anyone comes to me without hating his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. Which of you wishing to construct a tower does not first sit down and calculate the cost to see if there is enough for its completion? Otherwise, after laying the foundation and finding himself unable to finish the work the onlookers should laugh at him and say, ‘This one began to build but did not have the resources to finish.’ Or what king marching into battle would not first sit down and decide whether with ten thousand troops he can successfully oppose another king advancing upon him with twenty thousand troops? But if not, while he is still far away, he will send delegation to ask for peace terms. In the same way, anyone of you who does not renounce all his possessions cannot be my disciple.” The gospel of the Lord. Praise to you Lord Jesus Christ. I know that gospel reading is a difficult one to listen to. It's scary, I understand that. But the spiritual message that Jesus is going for is actually very straightforward. Jesus is powerfully telling the crowds that if something is worth doing, it's worth doing well. And following Christ as his disciple is worth doing well. It's an undertaking that's going to require their full attention, their full commitment and the time for hesitation and doubt has come and gone. That's what it means to be a disciple. If you think about it, it's actually kind of like marriage. Marriage requires your full attention, marriage requires your full commitment. Now there is a time for hesitation and doubt within the dating process. Don't skip those steps. Doubt is good but there is a time and a place for it and when you find yourself in front of Christ's altar making your marriage vows to one another, for one another, with one another, at that moment the time for doubt has got to give way to a time of devotion, come what may. That's what Jesus is saying, only he is not talking about marriage, he is talking about securing your place among his disciples. You don't do that halfway, no one is a fifty percent Christian. To be more precise, no one is a fifty percent Christian for long. That sort of person will either watch their faith wither and die, transform into faith into something else, or allow that faith to grow toward that target number of one hundred percent. And to make that point Jesus gives us two crystal clear examples in this gospel reading; a tower that is fifty percent complete is worthless. If you are being opposed by an army of twenty thousand soldiers, ten thousand soldiers are about as useful to you as zero soldiers. The point being half measures tend to yield zero returns. If something is worth doing, let it be done well with a full measure. So let us all be true disciples of Christ in full measure and let's save the half measures for things of little consequence.