(Sunday XXIII — C) The Terms of Discipleship (Luke 14:25-33)

As Jesus approaches his destination, the place where he immolates himself in utter obedience as the Servant-Son, he declares before those accompanying him the terms of discipleship. Nothing is to be loved more than Jesus himself: not even family members, nor one’s possessions. As a consequence, he challenges his listeners to be prudent in their intentions to follow him.

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• The Terms of Discipleship

Guide to the Reading

1. Read the whole of Luke 14:25-33 and create an outline. How would you characterize the statements in vv.26.27 and 33? Are they easy, difficult, very hard?
2. Luke mentions that Jesus addressed the above words to the "great crowds" accompanying him. Was Jesus challenging the crowds? Considering the previous section on the "narrow door" (Luke 13:22-24), would you say that Jesus is here making it easy for those who wish to be with him?
3. Between those difficult sayings, Jesus adds two parables, one about building a tower (a watch tower for one’s vineyard) and another about a king who goes to battle. What is his point here? In the "narrow door" section (Luke 13:22ff), Jesus says that many will try to enter but not all will succeed. Is he saying the same things here about the the builder of the tower and the king who goes to war?
4. Go back to the sayings in vv. 26.27 and 33. What other passages of the Gospels are similar to these?
5. Jesus says "whoever comes to me…cannot be my disciple". Compare this usage of "to come" with the folLowing verses in John: John 3:20.21; 5:40. Does the verb "to come" here mean the same thing as "to have life" as in John 5:40?

Review of the Readings

The first reading from Wisdom emphasizes the idea that no man can understand God’s thoughts unless He himself allows it by giving wisdom and His Spirit. The selection was made in view of the hard terms of discipleship that Jesus lays down before those following Him. Jesus’ parables about the man who builds a tower and the king who goes to war is an invitation to prudence, a wise man’s quality. The responsorial psalm gives us a prayer that expresses the need for wisdom: "Teach us to number our days aright, that we may gain wisdom of heart."

The second reading from Paul’s letter to Philemon is a personal appeal for one to welcome back someone who has become a fellow Christian, no longer as a slave, but as a brother. While Paul and the other New Testament writers accepted the institution of slavery as a given of their times, this did not prevent Paul from appealing in behalf of a slave — Onesimus — to this latter’s owner for freedom.

Suggestions for the Lesson

Jesus’ terms of discipleship are to be understood in the light of the struggle for entrance through the narrow door (Luke 13:22ff, Sunday XXI). All are invited to enter the kingdom, but the kingdom itself has its own requirements. And the first of these requirements is Christ Himself, the "door" to the sheepfold (cf. John 10:9) and the kingdom values that He wants His disciples to make their own.

1. The terms of discipleshp that Jssus lays down for his hearers may be harsh, but not impossible. Verses from the Gospel reading are used in the Catechism in two places: the first one (1618) is about the bonds of familial relations, and the other (2544) on possessions.

1618 Christ is the center of all Christian life. The bond with him takes precedence over all other bonds, familial or social. From the very beginning of the Church there have been men and women who have renounced the great good of marriage to follow the Lamb wherever he goes, to be intent on the things of the Lord, to seek to please him, and to go out to meet the Bridegroom who is coming. Christ himself has invited certain persons to follow him in this way of life, of which he remains the model…

2544 Jesus enjoins his disciples to prefer him to everything and everyone, and bids them "renounce all that [they have]" for his sake and that of the Gospel. Shortly before his passion he gave them the example of the poor widow of Jerusalem who, out of her poverty, gave all that she had to live on. The precept of detachment from riches is obligatory for entrance into the Kingdom of heaven.

2. The idea that should be stressed here is "Detachment" that is not to love something in such a way that it prevents us from making Christ the center of our lives and God our sole good. The Catechism makes a reference to this idea in CCC 226:

It (="Believing in God") means making good use of created things: faith in God, the only One, leads us to use everything that is not God only insofar as it brings us closer to him, and to separate ourselves from it insofar as it turns us away from him.

Here, Augustine’s distinction between "use" and "enjoy" is presupposed.

So then there are some things which are meant to be enjoyed, others which are meant to be used, yet others which do both the enjoying and the using. Things that are to be enjoyed make us happy; things which are to be used help us on our way to happiness, providing us, so to say, with crutches and props for reaching the things that will make us happy, and enabling us to keep them…

"Enjoyment" after all consists in clinging to something lovingly for its own sake, while "use" consists in referring what has come your way to what your love aims at obtaining,provided, that is, it deserves to be loved. (De doctrina christiana I, iii, 3-iv 4)