Friends,
our Gospel for today is an especially good exemplification of the
principle of detachment. When Jesus is the unambiguous center of your
life, then everything else finds its place around him, in relation to
him. And anything that would assert itself and take his position must be
resisted wholeheartedly as an idol and a temptation.
We
watch as Jesus clarifies for his disciples how a number of worldly
goods fall away, once he is recognized as Lord. I want to look closely
at one of these. As Jesus makes his way to Jerusalem, a man approaches
him and says, "I will follow you wherever you go." And Jesus makes the
laconic remark, "Foxes have dens and birds of the sky have nests, but
the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head." One of the things, quite
naturally, that we savor is home, a place to stay, a nest, a man cave.
There is just something uniquely awful about being displaced, about
starting all over. We all want a place to lay
our heads.
But
if Jesus is first in our lives, then we cannot absolutize this good
thing. We have to be willing to follow him wherever he wants us to go.v
Wednesday of the Twenty-sixth Week in Ordinary Time
Lectionary: 457
Job answered his friends and said:
I know well that it is so;
but how can a man be justified before God?
Should one wish to contend with him,
he could not answer him once in a thousand times.
God is wise in heart and mighty in strength;
who has withstood him and remained unscathed?
He removes the mountains before they know it;
he overturns them in his anger.
He shakes the earth out of its place,
and the pillars beneath it tremble.
He commands the sun, and it rises not;
he seals up the stars.
He alone stretches out the heavens
and treads upon the crests of the sea.
He made the Bear and Orion,
the Pleiades and the constellations of the south;
He does great things past finding out,
marvelous things beyond reckoning.
Should he come near me, I see him not;
should he pass by, I am not aware of him;
Should he seize me forcibly, who can say him nay?
Who can say to him, "What are you doing?"
How much less shall I give him any answer,
or choose out arguments against him!
Even though I were right, I could not answer him,
but should rather beg for what was due me.
If I appealed to him and he answered my call,
I could not believe that he would hearken to my words.
As Jesus and his disciples were proceeding
on their journey, someone said to him,
"I will follow you wherever you go."
Jesus answered him,
"Foxes have dens and birds of the sky have nests,
but the Son of Man has nowhere to rest his head."
And to another he said, "Follow me."
But he replied, "Lord, let me go first and bury my father."
But he answered him, "Let the dead bury their dead.
But you, go and proclaim the Kingdom of God."
And another said, "I will follow you, Lord,
but first let me say farewell to my family at home."
Jesus answered him, "No one who sets a hand to the plow
and looks to what was left behind is fit for the Kingdom of God."
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