The great journey begins. ‘Jesus resolutely determined to journey to Jerusalem. Jesus has already set Jerusalem as the heart of the Gospel story. In going to Jerusalem, Jesus was walking the road to his death and resurrection. Jesus knew full well that in going to Jerusalem, he was opening himself up to the plan of His heavenly Father.
Those who journey with Jesus in every generation must make Jerusalem their goal. For us to journey to Jerusalem is no simple travelogue but a vocation to discipleship and mission that will indeed take the rest of our lives. I have had the privilege of visiting the Holy Land a couple of times. These have been most memorable and very inspiring for me. But the Gospel imperative is even more than that. For you and I to set our faces toward Jerusalem is the surrender we must make when we choose to follow God’s call in our lives – wherever that may lead us. In other words, the Gospel invites us to reflect on the cost of discipleship.
To be honest, many of us, myself included, have a way of bargaining with God over the terms of our discipleship. At various times, we give the Lord different responses to the Lord’s call to be a disciple. Sometimes our actions suggest we are saying: “No thanks.” Sometimes our response is: “Maybe later.” Hopefully our response at other times is: “Be it done to me according to your Word.” – the response of Mary at the Annunciation.
But well before we examine our own whole or half-hearted response to Jesus’ invitation to discipleship, he sets us straight on how we are to judge others’ response to God’s call. Jesus frankly says: “It is none of your business.” Jesus demands we not judge how others respond. From the Gospel account, Jesus sent his messengers ahead of him. On the way they entered a Samaritan village to prepare for his reception there, but they would not welcome him because the destination of his journey was Jerusalem. When the disciples James and John saw this, they asked, “Lord, do you want us to call down fire from heaven to consume them?” Jesus turned and rebuked them and they journeyed to another village.
Jesus is saying to James and John: “It’s none of your business how others respond.”
Jesus’ decisive command to James and John that they express commitment to him through compassion for others. St. Paul writes that we must abandon the violence of biting and devouring one another, choosing instead to serve one another through love.
You and I need to do an inventory of the judgements, the gossip, the stereotyping, and the negativity we have toward all those who get under our skin. The message of Jesus is very clear: Let go of your judgments about others; rather make the commitment to serve one another with love.
Our focus needs to be on ourselves. How do we respond to our call to discipleship of the Lord Jesus? Our Gospel question of the week was and is: What stands in the way of you following Jesus more completely? This is such an important question because from the Gospel perspective we must be “all in” our discipleship of Jesus.
True discipleship is a full-time job. We can’t be disciples at certain times but not at others. It’s not like a project we can set aside and resume later.
To be a disciple of Jesus to live as Jesus, to love as Jesus, and to forgive as Jesus forgives us. The heart of Jesus is filled with love and because the heart of Jesus was filled with the love of His heavenly Father, Jesus loved everyone because he saw the Father’s love in each and every person.
The lens Jesus used was the lens of love and he saw love in every person on the face of the earth.
There is such an important truth to be learned by the disciples of Jesus. The world is as your heart sees it, not just as it is out there. What do I mean by that? When we look at life through the lens of love, we see God’s love in all of life.
What my life gets overwhelmed by fear, by anxiety, when I have trouble forgiving someone, when I get too stuck on myself, when my ministry seems like I’m
rearranging the furniture on the Titanic, when my view of the world is filled only with dark clouds, I am not looking at life through the lens of love. My heart is not filled with the love of Jesus. For when my heart is filled with the faith and love of Jesus, I see my future as full of hope and I see the love of God in all the people of my life.
What does it mean to be “all in” in our discipleship of Jesus?
To be a disciple of Jesus means discovering the way of love. Disciples must learn how to love. To be a disciple you must forgive one and all. There can be no exceptions. If you’re going to be a disciple of Jesus, you must be detached from everything but one thing and that is Jesus Himself.
How is it for you when your family isn’t all you want it to be; how is it when your job situation isn’t what you would like; how is it when the Church we live in and the world we are part of is all mixed up?
The world is as your heart sees it, not so much as it is out there. If your heart is filled with the love of your heavenly Father, what you see will be filled with love. I believe in the basic truth that we see life through the lens of our heart. When our hearts are filled with the love of Jesus, we will see in the people of our lives the love that is in our hearts. Jesus’ heart was filled with love for all people because he saw the love of God in all people.
Who in your life do you find most difficult to reach out to and love? Perhaps it is the person who has hurt you deeply -- even a family member; or person whose views on life are completely different than yours. The discipleship question for all of us is can we love as Jesus loves? Can we forgive as Jesus forgives us?
As we transition to the Liturgy of the Eucharist, as we prepare to receive the Eucharist, may we testify to the reality of our Catholic faith. We are being nourished with the life and the love of Jesus. This is a profound act of discipleship.