“What man can learn the counsel of God? Or who can discern what the Lord wills?”
- Wisdom 9:13
“I appeal to you for my child, Onesimus, whose father I have become in my imprisonment. I am sending him back to you, sending my very heart.”
- Philemon vv.10, 12
“If any one comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me, cannot be my disciple.”
- St. Luke 14:26,27
When we first hear today’s three Scripture readings a common thread is not immediately evident, but upon a closer consideration we can find a unity in them which speaks to us about Christian perfection, about real Christian discipleship.
We begin with a basic truth – a first step in our Christian life – which we hear in the book of Wisdom: “What man can learn the counsel of God? Or who can discern what the Lord wills?” Even though human knowledge is increasing rapidly we must constantly be reminded that we do not know everything, nor can we ever know everything. There are some things beyond our capacity to know – there are things of God that we will never fully understand in this life. Man’s problem is that he often confuses the difference between “knowledge” and “wisdom.” Our approach to God must have a sense of proportion and humility, knowing that there is far more about the things of God and about His creation than we can ever know.
That leads to the second reading, which is a portion of a very brief letter from St. Paul written to a Christian named Philemon. Philemon had a slave by the name of Onesimus. Onesimus had run away, and had gone to Paul, who had originally taught Onesimus the Christian faith. Paul was in prison at this time, and Onesimus wanted to stay with Paul to serve him in his imprisonment, and Paul had become quite fond of this runaway slave. But after some qualms of conscience, Paul and Onesimus decided that Onesimus should return to his master. So Paul writes a letter for Onesimus to take back to Philemon, and it is a letter which is shot through and through with the very question we heard in Wisdom, “What man can learn the counsel of God?” The civil law was on the side of Philemon – after all, according to the law in that time and place Onesimus was his property. But St. Paul puts it to Philemon in such a way as to say that the escape of Onesimus was really part of the mysterious plan of God. Paul writes, “Perhaps this is why he was parted from you for a while, that you might have him back forever, no longer as a slave, but more than a slave, as a beloved brother…” In other words, “God’s ways are not necessarily our ways.” If we do not understand something at first, it may well be part of the wisdom of God, which must not be ignored. If we needed further proof, history indicates to us that this Onesimus may well have become the Bishop of Ephesus some years after the writing of this letter, showing us the unexpected wisdom of God: that a slave should become the spiritual superior of the man who had once owned him!
And that brings us to the portion of the Gospel appointed for this day. The previous readings have led us on to its message, by telling us first that God’s wisdom is higher than our wisdom; and second, as in the case of Onesimus, God can turn things upside down in order to accomplish His purposes. And we now get to the crux of the message: namely, what it is to be a disciple of Christ, and what this discipleship involves. The bottom line, according to Christ, is this: “Whosoever of you does not renounce all that he has, cannot be my disciple.” And our Lord uses some difficult words to make this point: “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple…”
How unexpected, that Christ should call us to “hate” in order to follow Him! But we need to understand that what is translated as “hate” comes from an Aramaic word which means “to love less” – a much different meaning than our English word “hate.” In other words, Christ’s disciples are to love their families and themselves less than they love their duty to Christ. Or, to turn it around, our Lord demands a primary and undivided allegiance, and no one can be given precedence over Him in our lives.
Now certainly, Christ was not despising natural family ties – He instituted the Sacrament of marriage; He blessed little children; He taught us to call God “Our Father;” at His death he gave His own mother into the care of the beloved disciple. Certainly, He highly valued those relationships. And yet, He requires an immediate and unqualified loyalty to Himself first. And why? Because He is the Divine Incarnate Word, the Second Person of the Holy Trinity; He is God Himself – and we can have no love, no affection, no loyalty, which is greater than that which we are to have for God.
Christ says also that if we would be His disciple, each one must “carry his own cross” and come after Him. Each one of us has a cross – a requirement from God – which has been fitted for us individually, and it means we must put aside our own sense of what we think is important, so that we can find the will of Christ. The meaning is clear: the peace which comes from doing the will of God is the only real peace we can ever have – it passes our understanding. As we willingly carry the cross given to us, it means that we “die to ourselves” – it is like a seed that has to die so that the plant can grow and flower and bear fruit. That is how we seek and find God’s Kingdom. We will not grow beautiful roses if instead we plant weeds. We will not know the goodness and abundance of the fruits of God’s Kingdom it we plant only the seeds of our own selfish and conceited ideas.
The God who does the unexpected; whose wisdom cannot be fathomed; who calls a slave to be a bishop in His Church – will not be satisfied with half-hearted disciples. We cannot simply be “along for the ride.” If we are not standing totally with Him, then we might find ourselves standing against Him. Our vocation is to serve Christ, and that means we look for His Will, and follow that Will, because it is in our obedience to Him that we find true happiness, and the holiness to which we are called.
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Painting: "Christ Appearing to His Disciples"
by Duccio di Buoninsegna (c.1255-1260-c.1318-1319)