Archbishop of Sydney

23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time

St. Mary’s Cathedral, Sydney
Wis 9:13-18; Philemon 9-10, 12-17; Lk 14:25-33

By + Cardinal George Pell
Archbishop of Sydney
5 September 2004

Many times regular worshippers here at the Cathedral have heard me explain that we need to be clear about the basic Catholic claims, that we should not get lost in the detail, not be smothered by complexity.

I regularly tell both primary and secondary school students that they too need to be clear about these basics.  They need to know that the one true God loves them, especially when they are in trouble; that Jesus Christ the only Son of God died and rose again to redeem them; that they belong to Jesus’ followers, the Catholic Church, a community of worship and service led by the Pope and bishops and that they too must follow Christ, must repent and believe.

The first reading from the Old Testament Book of wisdom takes an apparently different tack, asking who can know God’s intentions, what the divine will might be.  The author points out that our reasoning is unsure and our intentions unstable.  It is hard enough to work out what should be done on earth, the author claims, without trying to discover what is in the heavens.

Human experience would give considerable backing to these claims, especially when we remember the variety of philosophers and religions throughout the world; the three great monotheist religions of Christianity, Judaism and Islam and the two other great Eastern religions of Hinduism (actually an immense variety of religious texts and doctrines as Hinduism as a title was first devised by the British Raj to distinguish most of the Indians from Moslems and Sikhs) and Buddhism.

There is no doubt that human reason is limited, even among geniuses and prophets and poets.  Generally Catholics acknowledge this limitation without going to the lengths of scepticism espoused by some Protestants, who believe that our intellect is so darkened by original sin that we can know very little about God by our reason; that we have to rely almost exclusively on God’s special revelation in the Scriptures to know about God and even how we should live in everyday life.

Traditionally Catholics have shown more confidence in the power of reason to acknowledge the one true God and to recognize how we should live through the principles of the natural law.

Despite his scepticism the author of the Book of Wisdom is also running his argument along similar lines because he especially recognizes that God sent his Holy Spirit and Wisdom to teach us what pleases God.  In his defence we must concede that we are much better placed than he was because Jesus has come among us.  We are New Testament people.

However, while the basic claims of the Catholic church are clear, they are certainly controversial, only followed at some considerable personal cost and they leave plenty of room for mystery and puzzlement.

The gospel passage today is one of the most provocative in the New Testament where we have Jesus stating that if we do not hate father, mother, brothers, sisters and our own life too, we cannot be his disciple.  There is another milder version of this in Matthew’s gospel (10:37 ) where we are required to prefer Jesus ahead of all these close relatives and our own life.

A couple of preliminary clarifications might be helpful.  The commentators point out that at that time many people were following Jesus for a variety of reasons: the “great crowd” accompanying him mentioned at the start of excerpt.  The experts suggest that Our Lord wanted to remind them what he was about, that he was not a travelling circus, but interested in obtaining their commitment to him and his teaching.  His remarks were designed to shake their complacency and make them consider their options.

Secondly, we should also remember that Jesus often stated his principles in a starling way and then leaves us to work out the qualifications, what is possible for us and what the core demands are.

This is the significance of the two practical examples he gives; one of them quite politically incorrect when it talks of a king deciding whether he can go to war with only half the number of soldiers that his opponent has.  The first example explains that there is little point in beginning to build a tower if you only have sufficient money for the foundations.

Jesus seems to be saying that the cost of discipleship is high and people should think carefully before signing on as a follower.  IN the days when there were many more adult baptisms, these texts would have been used as an excuse to delay baptism until late in life.  People felt that they could not keep all the Christian obligations, especially as the church’s penitential disciplines for sins / failures were so strict; so they waited.  The first Roman Emperor in the fourth century, Constantine, was such a figure, baptised only on his deathbed.

Jesus is making three points in this passage.  The first is that He himself, Jesus as the Son of God, comes first.  We cannot follow him and say mu family right or wrong, because family members like us stand under the Word of God.  It is not right for family members to break the law or refuse to follow the commandments simply because they are family.  We should be people of principle and if we are Jesus’ followers we should be people of Christian principle.

Secondly if we are followers of Jesus we cannot always take the easy way.  In his words we have to take up our cross.  There is no cost free following of Christ, as we have to be self disciplined and able to deny ourselves on some occasions.

The third condition is not met literally by most followers of Christ, but is the reason why members of religious orders take a vow of poverty, together with vows of chastity and obedience.  They do not own anything themselves, do not take a salary, as ownership is vested in their religious orders.

Most of us do not have the capacity to live as the poorest of the poor, to own nothing as e.g. Mother Teresa’s sisters, the Missionaries of Charity do.  But we should admire those who are able to follow Christ as closely as that.

However in a crisis, Jesus would not want us to abandon Him and Christian principles simply because it would cost us money, or our position, or our possessions.  This is why we venerate the Christian martyrs, those prepared to sacrifice life itself rather then deny Christ or His Church.

This passage is a provocation and a challenge.  May we have the insight to understand the teachings and the courage to put it into regular practice.  And finally may we pray, as one version of the Our Father prayer makes clear, that we are not put to the test, that we are not put into crisis situations where we have to choose between God and members of our family, between God and our position or possessions.

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.