THE RADICALISM OF CHRISTIAN LIFE.

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September 4, 2022.
Twenty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time – C.

Readings: Wis 9:13-18b; Ps 90:3-4, 5-6, 12-13, 14 and 17; Phmn 9-10, 12-17; Lk 14:25-33.

“Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.” Lk 14:27
A Latin proverb says: “Man's life is a sojourn in a strange land.” And a Danish proverb adds: “Suffering and patience, obedience and application, help the lowly born to honor.”
It is not easy to be a Christian. It has never been and will never be easy to follow Christ. For, the Christian life as such is demanding. The Lord did not promise his followers a peaceful and trouble-free life. Rather, the cross is what defines us the best as Christians. For, the Christian life finds its real meaning at the foot of the tree of the Cross. It is there, when the Lord was dying that our faith got its full meaning.
The Lord Jesus did not want to deceive anyone of his followers about the hardships that goes with the choice of walking after him. Today's readings, especially the Gospel, put a particular emphasis on the challenging side of the Christian  life.
We hear the Lord speaks of renunciation; hating oneself and those dear to him; and the cross. That is what it requires and costs to be a true Christian. If you truly want to be a good Christian, a true Christ-follower, you must be ready to break away from yourself, your pleasures, your personal interests, even your family, take your cross and follow him. Though the disciples of Christ are not all crucified, yet to be a true disciple, one must bear his cross, and must bear it in the way of duty. Our crosses must become part of our daily life. In That sense, Don Orione could say to his spiritual children to ask together with their daily bread, the daily cross and the necessary courage to bear it. 
Humanly speaking, that is too demanding and unacceptable. But when you go to the dimension of the life the Lord proposes to us, it is not a mere call to hatred, renunciation, and hardships, but a call to freedom and genuine love that sets God primarily and above all. It is a call to a categoric and predominant love for God. Without that choice all we do loses its meaning. Without the cross, the Christian life is just a slavery to doctrines. St. John's maxim must always resound in our hearts and minds: "Do not seek Christ without the cross."
Sadly, our world wants to find its way away from the cross. Things started with a theory of laicity compelling to remove all religious signs and crosses from public establishments. Then came the pandemic making of religion a secondary or none essential. In the end, even the Christians themselves have retrospected to a life away from the Cross and commitment. The online religiosity has become an option for many. Let us not forget one truth, Christianity without the cross is a global spiritual pandemic that has killed many Christians and has perverted the ways of the Lord. And that is what our world is living today.
If we wish to know God's will and perceive what is in his plan for us, we must first make him an essential in our lives. To him who gives him primacy in his life, God also reveals the inner of his projects. The Wise man asked, "Who can know God's counsel, or who can conceive what the Lord intends?" He who gives him a way in his life. God is gracious and reveals himself to he who makes of him his refuge.
In God, through Jesus, we are set free from all that enslaves us. Our life therefore is to be that of brother in Christ. Just as Paul asks to Philemon on behalf of Onesimus. He is to receive him no longer as slave but a brother. By making option for God above all, we all become brothers. That is one of the beautiful rewards of the Christian life. Though it is demanding, it opens our world and widens our universe.



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