Aug 30, 2013
Wisdom
9:13-18
Psalm 90:3-6, 12-17
Philemon 1:9-10, 12-17
Luke 14:25-33
Like a king making ready for battle or a contractor about to build
a tower, we have to count the cost as we set out to follow
Jesus.
Our Lord today is telling us upfront the sacrifice it will take.
His words aren't addressed to His chosen few, the Twelve, but
rather to the "great crowds" - to "anyone," to "whoever" wishes to
be His disciple.
That only makes His call all the more stark and uncompromising. We
are to "hate" our old lives, renounce all the earthly things we
rely upon, to choose Him above every person and possession. Again
He tells us that the things we have - even our family ties and
obligations - can become an excuse, an obstacle that keeps us from
giving ourselves completely to Him (see Luke
9:23-26, 57-62).
Jesus brings us the saving Wisdom we are promised in today's First
Reading. He is that saving Wisdom.
Weighed down by many earthly concerns, the burdens of our body and
its needs, we could never see beyond the things of this world,
could never detect God's heavenly design and intention. So in His
mercy He sent us His Spirit, His Wisdom from on High, to make
straight our path to Him.
Jesus himself paid the price for to free us from the sentence
imposed on Adam, which we recall in today's Psalm (see
Genesis 2:7;
2:19). No more will the work of our hands be an
affliction, no more are we destined to turn back to dust.
Like Onesimus in today's Epistle, we have been redeemed, given a
new family and a new inheritance, made children of the father,
brothers and sisters in the Lord.
We are free now to come after Him, to serve Him - no longer slaves
to the ties of our past lives. In Christ, all our yesterdays have
passed. We live in what the Psalm today beautifully describes as
the daybreak of His kindness. For He has given us wisdom of heart,
taught us to number our days aright.