Readings:
I - Gen. 18:16-33
II - Mt. 8:18-22
READINESS TO RISK, READINESS TO RENOUNCE
The Scribes were interpreters of the law, drafted legal documents and involved in the administrative work. They were professionals, learned and the elite accustomed to sophistication and comfortable living. According to the Gospel passage today, a scribe approaches Jesus to follow Him. Jesus proposes readiness to risk even the basic necessities if he wished to follow him. When another of his disciple said that he wanted to go and burry his father, Jesus exhorts readiness to renounce even the basic relationship in the pursuit of following Him. Thus Jesus proposes readiness to risk even the basic necessities of life and readiness to renounce even the basic and primary relationship viz, the parental relationship as the criteria for being His follower.
Every Christian vocation is a call, commitment and a challenge. As Christians we are called to follow and imitate our Lord with an obligation to be His witnesses. In the pursuit of following and imitation, we may have to risk our safety, security, name, fame and status, say, even the basic necessities of life. We must be ready to renounce even basic parental relationship and be neutral in our search for service, equality, peace, justice and liberation. Affection and emotional attachments are often a great challenge to stand by the Lord as his disciple with the quest to follow Him.
Courage! Readiness to risk even the basic necessities and the readiness to renounce even the parental relationship is a great demand for being the disciple of Jesus and Christian living. Let us examine ourselves in the light of the Gospel passage today, and implore God’s grace to be His witnessing and authentic, as the Gospel says “Would-Be followers” of Jesus Christ.
