23rd Sunday of Ordinary Time 2025 - The cost of discipleship...and what is gained

 

From now to the end of the liturgical year, our second readings will take us through each of St. Paul’s letters to individuals. So, starting today with St. Paul’s shortest letter, the one-chapter epistle to Philemon, over the next few weeks until Advent, we’ll then read from the apostle’s letters to St. Timothy and finally St. Titus. Today is the only day in the three-year cycle of readings that we read from Paul’s letter to Philemon. So, we should spend some time with it, shouldn’t we?

Around the year 60, Paul was arrested and imprisoned in Rome. Imprisoned with Paul was a slave who had been arrested for running away from his Master. The slave’s name was Onesimus. Imprisoned together, Paul got to know Onesimus; he shared the Gospel with him, baptized him, and formed him in the Christian Way. When Onesimus’ prison sentence had concluded, he was to return to his master, named Philemon, to whom Paul composed the letter we read from today. In this letter, Paul urged Philemon, who himself was a Christian, to free Onesimus from his bond of slavery, and allow Onesimus to return to Rome to assist Paul in his ministry.

This 2000 year old letter is an important testimony to the Christian belief in the equal human dignity of all persons—and the equality and unity of the baptized. 

According to the law of the land, Onesimus was Philemon’s legal possession. But, Paul urged Philemon to recognize that Onesimus was more than a possession, he was a brother. “Do what is proper” Paul urged Philemon: release him.

Now, consider what Paul was asking Philemon to do. Paul was urging Philemon to change his way of thinking and to give up something that he valued. Paul’s request was going to cost Philemon something. Philemon would have to change his lifestyle, change his household, change the way his family operated. Philemon no doubt relied on people like Onesimus. And now Paul was asking him to give something up that he relied on—to sacrifice comfort, societal norms, and his own preferences for the sake of the Gospel and because it was the right thing to do.

Paul knew that this request was going to be difficult—and costly to Philemon—but Paul made this request because it was the right thing to do.

In the Gospel this weekend the Lord speaks of how following him is costly to us--the cost of discipleship. Unless you give up family, you cannot be my disciple. Unless you carry the cross, you cannot be my disciple. Unless you renounce all of your possessions, you cannot be my disciple.

Discipleship has a cost—a cost from each of us. No one can pay it for you. It’s yours. Your responsibility. Your sacrifice. 

This is a hard message for us. Just like it was a hard message when Jesus taught it back then. St. Luke tells us in today’s passage that great crowds were following Jesus. A great number of people were with him. Moms and dads and kids and grandparents all walking together.

But then Jesus turns around and faces them, and addresses these moms and dads and kids and grandparents and says, “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.”

This crowd of families just like you were walking with Jesus, but he says, if you want to follow me any further, if you want to follow me to my ultimate destination, it’s going to cost you something, something dearly. Your loyalty to family needs to come second, from here on out. Oh, by the way, your very life too, your impulse of self-preservation. You have to be willing to embrace the cross, to endure crucifixion—suffering and death. 

At this point in St. Luke’s Gospel, Jesus has set his face toward Jerusalem. He was walking toward Jerusalem, on a sort of death march toward his Passion. And did any of these people end up following him there? Were any of them crucified with him on Calvary? Nobody, except two thieves. Not anyone from this great crowd, not his most beloved disciple. Some stood and watched and wept. But Jesus went alone, where fallen humanity was too fearful to go.

It’s not until after his resurrection when it finally clicked for us—when we understood--when the courage to follow Him unto death was truly bestowed upon us. 

Why should I give-up family loyalty and material wealth in order to follow him? Because it leads to resurrection and life everlasting. We don’t lose hope and turn away from God when we are presented with our crosses because we know God brings about tremendous good through them. Joy and life and profound transformation are discovered when we are faithful. When we go beyond our comfort zones to engage in the works of charity and to share the Gospel, when we resist temptation and willingly do penance—lives are transformed—minds and heart are filled with glory and light. We see it over and over in the lives of the saints.  St. Clare, left the luxury and wealth of her home, she left her family, despite their opposition, in order to devote her life to Jesus through radical poverty, like that of St. Francis. 

Ordinary people—transformed—filled with glory—because they were willing to follow Jesus when it cost them something. 

If the practice of the faith isn’t currently costing you something, you might not be heading in the direction the Lord is trying to lead you. And if that’s the case, pray for courage, pray for strength, ask him to help you, ask him to lead you where you are to fearful to go, if it be the will of God.

Because when you trust him, and follow him beyond your wants and fears and ingrained habits and prejudices and plans for your life, you will gain so much more: freedom, joy, blessing and life everlasting for the glory of God and the salvation of souls.

23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time 2022 - No longer a slave, but a brother

 During St. Paul’s imprisonment in Rome, he met a runaway slave named Onesimus and baptized him. Slaves under Roman law had no rights because they were considered property. They could be condemned to hard labor, punished with blows of the rod and otherwise tortured. Runaway slaves were treated even worse—they were to be branded with a red hot iron on the forehead with the letter F, for fugitivus, which meant runaway. A fugitivus, when recaptured, could even be crucified. 

Somehow this runaway slave, Onesimus, had found his way from Colossae, modern-day Turkey, to the crowded, busy streets of the imperial capital city of Rome. And somehow, Onesimus had come into contact with Paul, who had been imprisoned. And while visiting Paul, Onesimus requested baptism, and become a Christian. 

We know Onesimus grew quite dear to Paul. Paul writes how he wished Onesimus could stay with him in Rome, but Paul, the apostle, sends the newly baptized Onesimus back to Philemon, his master, to whom Paul writes his letter. 

And Paul sends Onesimus back to Colossae, to his master Philemon. And in his letter to Philemon, our second reading today, Paul requests that Onesimus be received not as a slave but as a brother in the Lord, to welcome him as he would welcome Paul himself. Do not brand him as a fugitivus, for in baptism, Onesimus has received the indelible mark of salvation through Christ. And we have every reason to believe that Philemon did as Paul asked.

Now, St. Paul knew that what he was asking from Philemon was counter-cultural. Slavery was an institution in the Roman Empire, there were something like 60 million slaves—from different parts of the world which Rome had conquered: asia minor and the middle east, north Africa, spain and Portugal, gaul, and northern europe. 

But Paul had great reason to believe that Philemon would adhere to his request. Philemon was a true Christian. Paul at the beginning of the letter calls Philemon his brother, his coworker in the vineyard. Philemon was a leader in the church of Colossae—a true source of refreshment and encouragement for the other Christians there, as he acknowledges in his letter. Philemon was one of the good guys. 

But this request, this third shortest new testament letter, highlights for us just what it means to be a Christian. The letter to Philemon shows how Christians who have been freed from sin and forgiven by Christ must free and forgive others. Christian Love goes far beyond justice. The law of the world said Onesimus should be branded, even killed. The new law demanded forgiveness from his brother. 

In the eyes of God, we are all Onesimus, freedom from sin by God through Christ. Like Philemon we are to receive our Christian brothers and sisters, even those who have sinned against us, with mercy.

This reading certainly challenges us to examine our hearts sincerely, thoroughly, and honestly, to see what grudges we still hold and what prejudices we bear.

Is there an individual in our life that we are not treating as a brother, but as a slave, or as an enemy? Christ died for that person. Is there a whole group of people that we resent, that makes us mad just to think about? Christ died for them too.

These barriers of resentment, anger, and prejudice are like giant weeds growing in the garden of our souls. They steal the nutrients that are meant to feed virtues like wisdom, courage, and generosity - the kind of virtues that produce interior peace and lasting happiness.

Resentment, anger, and unforgiveness grow around our hearts like vines grow around trees - sucking the Christian life out of us, to the point where we begin to justify gossiping, criticizing, and destructive attitudes of division that make this world such a valley of sorrows.

We plead to God for forgiveness for ourselves, but Christ teaches that we too must forgive others. “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us” we plead in the Lord’s prayer. The measure of our forgiveness is the measure we receive it. 

In Christ, all the false divisions among people dissolve, and we are made into one family. Sin divides the world, leading to war, racism, prejudice, and injustice. But Christ came to heal the wounds of sin and division. 

Forgiveness, it might feel painful to forgive. It might feel like a cross. But in the Gospel today, the Lord teaches that “Whoever does not carry the cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.” So we must practice forgiveness.

It is difficult to forgive those who betray us—who offend, who harm us with their words and actions.  To forgive may feel like we are giving them a free pass.  When we are hurt or betrayed, there is a part of us that says, “I don’t want to talk to them, I don’t want to see them, I don’t want to be near them, I don’t even want to think about them.”  But that part of us needs to be flooded with mercy. 

A Christian must never say, “I will never forgive you.”  

Don’t leave Church today without having decided that you will welcome the Onesimuses in your lives as brothers. Ask Jesus to give you a heart like his, a heart like Paul's, to welcome the fugitive—to make your peace with those who have wronged you. I can think of few things that would please our Lord more than that...for the glory of God and salvation of souls.