Homily: 13th Sunday in OT 2016 - I will follow Him.

 All the way back in 1992, there was a very fun movie starring Whoopi Goldberg as Sister Mary Clarence a Catholic nun, called, Sister Act. This movie came to mind, for the last few weeks on WCLV Cleveland’s Classical Music station, there have been frequent advertisements for a theatrical production of Sister Act at the Porthouse Theater in Cuyahoga Falls.  It’s getting very good reviews and running through next weekend, by the way.

Those unfamiliar with the story, Whoopi Goldberg plays a big-haired night club singer whose boyfriend happens to be a murdering mafia boss.  When she witnesses a murder she takes refuge in a convent.  There in the convent, she helps the tone-deaf choir members find their voices, so to speak. And soon they are singing beautifully old hymns with a soulful Rhythm and Blues beat.  By the end of the story, the Pope even comes to hear them sing. 

One of the most popular tunes from the show is “I will follow Him”, a song from the 1960s about a girl who has fallen in love and will pursue her lover “wherever he may go”. Listen to the lyrics: “I will follow him, Follow him wherever he may go, There isn't an ocean too deep, Or mountain so high it can keep, Keep me away, I must follow him, Ever since he touched my hand I knew, That near him I always must be, And nothing can keep him from me, He is my destiny.” Even though the original song probably wasn’t talking about following Christ, they are nearly perfectly applicable. 

Will you follow Jesus anywhere? This willingness to follow Him wherever he may go is fundamental for authentic Christian discipleship. Trusting him, following him anywhere.

In the Gospel today, Jesus and the disciples are traveling to Jerusalem, and someone stops him and tells him, “I will follow you wherever you may go.” And Jesus warns the person, "Foxes have dens and birds of the sky have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to rest his head." In other words, Jesus is saying, I’m homeless, will you follow me, even if that means giving up your home? Will you follow me even if it means never being able to go home again?

This makes me think of the good consecrated religious, the men and women who enter convents to dedicate themselves to Jesus through a life of prayer and service.  Our own parish patron Saint Clare, gave up her family wealth, gave up living in a castle, to spend her life in consecrated service and prayer.  The saints up and down the centuries show us the great joy that can be discovered when we trust Jesus enough to follow him anywhere.

Next, in the Gospel, Jesus invited another person to follow him. But sadly, like so many of us, this person offers an excuse: “I’ll follow you, I’ll come, but first I’ve got to bury my father”.  Now, okay. If you are looking for an excuse to put off close radical discipleship, I couldn’t think of a better excuse.  Suppose you are being invited to something, and you say, “yes, I’d love to come, but I have to attend my father’s funeral. Who in their right mind would criticize you for such an important familiar duty?

But, perhaps to teach all of us an important lesson, Jesus doesn’t entertain the request.  He says, “let the dead bury the dead.”  Now we shouldn’t over-literalize Jesus’ response, as though God is opposed to us attending funerals.  But this IS Jesus’ way of grabbing us by the shoulders, it’s Jesus way of compelling us to name our priorities.  Is following Jesus the most important thing in your life, or not?

I highly doubt that any of us would be called upon to make this choice, choose between following Jesus and attending a family member’s funeral. But if we did have to make this choice, where is our first loyalty?

For our motto as disciples of Christ must be “Following Jesus. Nothing more. Nothing less. Nothing Else” Our Christian identity is deeper than our nationality, our political party, our place of employment.  If we ever have to choose between following a political candidate or following Christ, we must choose Christ. If we ever have to choose between making a million dollars or following God’s commandments. We must choose God without compromise.

I think, one of the things that keeps us from real authentic fulfillment and joy in this life, besides sin of course, is fear of following Jesus into the unknown.  We fear following Jesus to go feed the hungry because it makes us feel guilty for our luxurious living. We fear following Jesus to teach the ignorant and rebuke the sinner because we fear hurting people’s feelings. We fear asking God if we might be called to become a priest or a nun, because we are afraid that the answer might be “yes”. We fear reading the bible God’s word at night because we don’t want miss our favorite show.  We fear following the Church’s teaching forbidding contraception, even though she speaks with Jesus’ own authority on this matter. Some of us fear going to Church every Sunday no matter what. We fear giving up our addictions. All these fears keep us from life.

Ah, but when we do surrender, when we do trust, that makes all the difference.  This ability to trust God always, to follow Jesus always is precisely what the bible means by “freedom”.  Paul says, “it is for freedom Christ set us free.” The freedom to follow Him anywhere, uncompromisingly, without fear, for the glory of God and salvation of souls.