Joseph’s :: Notices :: Magazine
23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time (Yr C)
we shall exult and rejoice all our days.
Psalm 89(90) verse 14
READINGS: Wisdom 9:3-6 . 12-14 . 17, Psalm 89(90), Philemon 9-10 & 12-17, Luke 14:25-33
I wonder whether you were out last night painting the town red? Or whether, this morning, you got out of the wrong side of the bed? If English is your first language you’ll have had no difficulty understanding what I was just asking (although you might wonder why). If English isn’t your first language you will probably have realised that I used a couple of those odd little phrases that could mean one thing, but in fact mean another. Every language seems to have these types of phrases, or idioms. To ‘hate’ something, as it is used in this Sunday’s Gospel, is a Hebrew idiom meaning to be totally detached from it (all of the readings can be found at the bottom of this page).
Most of the stories that Jesus told were shocking to the people who first heard them - the story of the ‘Prodigal Son’ particularly stands out. Rather than being shocked, we tend to be simply interested in what we can learn from them. This week we are told, ‘If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, even his own life, he cannot be a disciple of mine.’ (Luke 14:26) Even for us that’s quite shocking, and it doesn’t make too much difference to know that ‘hate’ means ‘total detachment.’
There is another aspect to this, something that makes it all the more shocking to Jesus’ first hearers. It is partly to do with identity, and partly with the way we think. It’s quite normal for our outlook to be quite individualistic - we think things through for ourselves and make our own decisions as far as possible. Our identity too tends to be quite individual. It depends on our work, our interests, what kind of personality we have. For people of the Ancient Near East everything was about the family or clan. The way to think was the way the family thought. A person’s identity was the identity of the family. To be called to ‘hate’ your family then, was almost like being called to give up life itself.
Jesus wasn’t, of course, asking people to seek this kind of choice, only if your family refused to accept Jesus would you be faced with it. Neither was it a choice between family and solitude, but rather between one family and another. We can think of the episode described earlier in Luke’s Gospel where Jesus is told that his mother, brothers are outside. He replies that, ‘My mother and brothers are those who hear the word of God and put it into practice.’ (Luke 8:21)
Philemon Verses 15 & 16
We see something of this vision of the Christian family in the account of Philemon and Onesimus. Onesimus was a runaway slave. Somehow he came into contact with Saint Paul and became a Christian - Saint Paul says that he became Onesimus’ (spiritual) father. As you might imagine, people in the ancient world didn’t take too kindly to runaway slaves. If caught, they could certainly expect to be punished, and payment would be required for each working day lost. Under the law, runaway slaves could even be put to death. Philemon was clearly a wealthy man if he was in a position to ‘own’ slaves. He had become a Christian though, and Saint Paul (in the the letter carried by Onesimus) was asking him forego his right to punish Onesimus. More than that, he was asking Philemon to re-think his idea of family. He wanted Philemon to receive Onesimus back as a brother in Christ.
Many people have family members - even close ones - who refuse to accept Jesus. More than that, they often try to pull us in their direction, away from Jesus. If so, we’re called to make the same choice as the ancients. It matters then, how strong the bonds are that we have in our local Christian family. If those bonds are weak, then our ability to live out our Christian mission together will be weak too. Most of us realise the need to put effort into making these family bonds stronger. Even the smallest steps to do so will reward us with the certainty that this is a tower which can be built.
Mark Howe
Readings for the 23RD SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME (Year C)
FIRST READING
A reading from the book of Wisdom 9:13-18
Who can divine the will of the Lord?
What man indeed can know the intentions of God?
Who can divine the will of the Lord?
The reasonings of mortals are unsure
and our intentions unstable;
for a perishable body presses down the soul,
and this tent of clay weighs down the teeming mind.
It is hard enough for us to work out what is on earth,
laborious to know what lies within our reach;
who, then, can discover what is in the heavens?
As for your intention, who could have learnt it, had you not granted Wisdom
and sent your holy spirit from above?
Thus have the paths of those on earth been straightened
and men been taught what pleases you,
and saved, by Wisdom.
This is the word of the Lord.
Responsorial Psalm Ps 89 (90):3-6 . 12-14 . 17 R/ v.1
R/ O Lord, you have been our refuge from one generation to the next.
- You turn men back into dust
and say: ‘Go back, sons of men.’
To your eyes a thousand years
are like yesterday, come and gone,
no more than a watch in the night. R/ - You sweep men away like a dream,
like grass which springs up in the morning.
In the morning it springs up and flowers:
by evening it withers and fades. R/ - Make us know the shortness of our life
that we may gain wisdom of heart.
Lord, relent! Is your anger for ever?
Show pity to your servants. R/ - In the morning, fill us with your love;
we shall exult and rejoice all our days.
Let the favour of the Lord be upon us:
give success to the work of our hands. R/
SECOND READING
A reading from the letter of Saint Paul to Philemon 9-10 . 12-17
Have him back, not as a slave any more, but as a dear brother.
This is Paul writing, an old man now and, what is more, still a prisoner of Christ Jesus. I am appealing to you for a child of mine, whose father I became while wearing these chains: I mean Onesimus. I am sending him back to you, and with him - I could say - a part of my own self. I should have liked to keep him with me; he could have been a substitute for you, to help me while I am in the chains that the Good News has brought me. However, I did not want to do anything without your consent; it would have been forcing your act of kindness, which should be spontaneous. I know you have been deprived of Onesimus for a time, but it was only so that you could have him back for ever, not as a slave any more, but something much better than a slave, a dear brother; especially dear to me, but how much more to you, as a blood-brother as well as a brother in the Lord. So if all that we have in common means anything to you, welcome him as you would me.
This is the word of the Lord.
Gospel Acclamation Jn 15:15
Alleluia, alleluia!
I call you friends, says the Lord,
because I have made known to you
everything I have learnt from my Father.
Alleluia!
GOSPEL
A reading from the holy Gospel according to Luke 14:25-33
None of you can be my disciple unless he gives up all his possessions.
Great crowds accompanied Jesus on his way and he turned and spoke to them. ‘If any man comes to me without hating his father, mother, wife, children, brothers, sisters, yes and his own life too, he cannot be my disciple. Anyone who does not carry his cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.
‘And indeed, which of you here, intending to build a tower, would not first sit down and work put the cost to see if he had enough to complete it? Otherwise, if he laid the foundation and then found himself unable to finish the work, the onlookers would all start making fun of him and saying, “Here is a man who started to build and was unable to finish.” Or again, what king marching to war against another king would not first sit down and consider whether with ten thousand men he could stand up to the other who advanced against him with twenty thousand? If not, then while the other king was still a long way off, he would send envoys to sue for peace. So in the same way, none of you can be my disciple unless he gives up all his possessions.’
This is the Gospel of the Lord.
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