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23rd
Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle C
Terranuova
Hermitage
September 8, 2013
A Job Offer
By (Rev. Msgr.) Nicholas P. Amato
A Job Interview
Imagine for just a
minute that you apply for a job and get called for an interview.
In the interview the
boss says that the working conditions are not the best. It’s an old building and your office area
would have no windows.
The restrooms are a
bit antiquated. And the building gets a
bit warm in the summer because of an under-powered air conditioning system.
Then the boss talks
about the work hours. She says that the
normal hours will be 9 to 5, but each Friday she lists the hours for the coming
week.
Lots of times the
hours will shift and go from1 to 9pm.
She knows that this makes planning things with your family tough, but
that’s the way it is.
And then the boss
talks bout the compensation package. The
pay clearly isn’t great.
The benefit package
is rather minimal. And then, while they
have a 401 retirement plan, the employer doesn’t contribute anything to it.
When you look at all
of this, it isn’t great compared to other places. But you really like this type of work and … you
take the job.
A Discipleship Interview
That kind of job
interview helps us to appreciate today’s gospel.
It’s almost as if
Jesus is giving a discipleship interview.
He is laying out some of the basic expectations.
Sometimes you’ll
have to do things you dislike. Sometimes
you’ll have to put family and friends second.
And sometimes you’ll
have to let go of money and comforts and just share with others. Jesus uses some pretty extreme language here
– like hating others.
These are really literary
expressions of his day. Their use is to jolt us not to hate anyone, but to make
a positive decision for him.
Jesus wants us to allow
him and our relationship with him to color all that we do. So sometimes we’ll have to let go of normal,
good preferences, attachments, and enjoyments for the sake of following him in
everyday life.
The Job Description
For example, right
in these weeks, some of our young adults are in a sense letting go of
family. They are leaving the comfort of
home and the closeness of family perhaps for the first time and going off to
college.
And they are doing
this as a way to take the next step in developing themselves as persons and
using all the gifts God has given them.
Consciously or not, they are following the Lord’s calling.
Or parents might let
go of going out to dinner to a rather expensive restaurant. No question, there is nothing wrong with that
and it is good for them to get out together.
But they hold off
doing this so that they can buy the new jeans or sneakers for their kids or
meet other family bills. Again,
consciously or unconsciously, they are following the Lord’s calling.
Or maybe parents
know from pre-natal testing that a child will have some significant
developmental issues. Naturally, they
are upset, disappointed and anxious and wonder “Why us?”
But they don’t
consider an abortion and they follow through with the best pre and post-natal
care that they can provide. Again,
consciously or unconsciously, they are following the Lord’s calling.
Or maybe we
Americans in general need to let go of some of our expectations. Some current authors are saying that the
world is shifting in our understanding of “progress” and that we can no longer
expect the kind of constantly advancing lifestyle that we have grown used to as
the definition of progress.
So perhaps we let go
of some of these expectations, which were fine in themselves, and we do this so
that others in the world can have enough just to survive. Again, consciously or unconsciously, we are
following the Lord’s calling.
Conclusion
So, Jesus gives us a challenging job description for being
a disciple today.
And it is a job description with real-life
ramifications. But it will be rewarding
work and a rewarding life.
The question remains, do I take the job? Only you can
answer that!
