{"id":1672,"date":"2016-09-04T17:57:52","date_gmt":"2016-09-04T15:57:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fathernikola.org\/liturgy\/?p=1672"},"modified":"2016-09-04T16:04:38","modified_gmt":"2016-09-04T14:04:38","slug":"23rd-sunday-in-ordinary-time-cycle-c","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/fathernikola.org\/liturgy\/2016\/09\/04\/23rd-sunday-in-ordinary-time-cycle-c\/","title":{"rendered":"23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle C"},"content":{"rendered":"

At first glance it may seem that in today\u2019s Gospel Jesus is asking his disciples to burn his bridges, but if we look a little more closely we can see he\u2019s inviting us to \u201cdo the math.\u201d It seems so illogical that he would ask us to abandon our family, our health, our security, and our comfort to follow him \u2013 he tells us to follow him bearing our Cross.\u00a0In the second part of the Gospel he invites us to do the math: to think about what we\u2019re trying to build in our life, like the tower builder, and what battle we\u2019re ready to wage against the challenges that come in life, like the king<\/p>\n

When we read the words of the First Reading, we see the math just breaks down.\u00a0When we try to find the answers to the big questions \u2013 life, death, love, our calling in this life, we see that the cut and dry business or scientific approach doesn\u2019t work.\u00a0The big questions escape our categories, experience, and observation, and with such big mysteries looming over our heads, mysteries that seem to decide our fate, our hearts yearn for freedom.\u00a0Christ in today’s\u00a0Gospel is offering us those answers and that freedom. He asks us to have faith and trust in Him<\/p>\n

Onesimus, the slave whom Paul mentions in the Second Reading, sought that escape to\u00a0freedom from his master, Philemon, to whom Paul was writing, but he found a far greater freedom.\u00a0In the time of ancient Rome, slaves were a big percentage of the population: due to debts or being on the wrong end of a war, and such a need to Roman society that they were a social class of their own. Rome took escapees very seriously, and Onesimus got caught, but Christ let him get caught so he could experience a true freedom, with the help of St. Paul, whom he met in prison.\u00a0Paul sent Onesimus back to Philemon with the letter we read a part of the second reading to be Christ\u2019s instrument of liberation: a liberation of love. Paul urges Philemon to see Onesimus now as more than a servant, more than a piece of property, to see him as Christ wants him to be seen: as a brother.\u00a0We can hope that Philemon accepted Onesimus back as a brother.<\/p>\n

When we follow Christ, he will do the same thing through us.\u00a0Our families, our sufferings, our very selves will experience this liberation of love, and when we follow Christ, those we love will seek him as well as the answer to the big questions of life that go byond their math as well. However,\u00a0we must put Christ first in our lives. That can hurt us and our family a lot, but when we put our calculations aside, when we face the unknown trusting in Christ, we show him we are following him.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s ask Our Lord for the grace to put him first:\u00a0 to put him first by receiving him frequently in the Eucharist,\u00a0by telling him we\u2019re sorry in Confession,\u00a0by helping the spiritually or\u00a0materially poor around us,\u00a0and by loving our family as Christ taught us and showed us.<\/p>\n

Readings:\u00a0Wisdom 9:13\u201318b; Psalm 90:3\u20136, 12\u201314, 17; Philemon 9\u201310, 12\u201317; Luke 14:25\u201333.\u00a0<\/em>See also\u00a031st Week in Ordinary Time, Wednesday<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a015th Week in Ordinary Time, Monday<\/a>.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

At first glance it may seem that in today\u2019s Gospel Jesus is asking his disciples to burn his bridges, but if we look a little more closely we can see he\u2019s inviting us to \u201cdo the math.\u201d It seems so illogical that he would ask us to abandon our family, our health, our security, and … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[121,45,15,84],"class_list":["post-1672","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-cycle-c","tag-ordinary-time","tag-sunday","tag-twenty-third-week"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p65qtw-qY","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/fathernikola.org\/liturgy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1672","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/fathernikola.org\/liturgy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/fathernikola.org\/liturgy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/fathernikola.org\/liturgy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/fathernikola.org\/liturgy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1672"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/fathernikola.org\/liturgy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1672\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1675,"href":"http:\/\/fathernikola.org\/liturgy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1672\/revisions\/1675"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/fathernikola.org\/liturgy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1672"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/fathernikola.org\/liturgy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1672"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/fathernikola.org\/liturgy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1672"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}