Weekly HOMILY for September 9, 2007: Becoming a Full Disciple

23rd Sunday of Ordinary Time, Cycle C
Our Lady of Grace
September 9, 2007

Focus: Jesus calls us to be full disciples
Function: Through detachment, we will find ourselves going through a process of formation.

Becoming a Full Disciple
By (Rev. Msgr.) Nicholas P. Amato


Monkeys: Not Letting Go

A tribe in Africa has an ingenious way for trapping wild monkeys.

They take a large pumpkin and hollow it out completely. Then they cut a hole in the side of the pumpkin that is just big enough for a monkey’s hand to slip through.

Then they fill the pumpkin with peanuts, tie it to a tree and leave. When all is quiet, the curious monkeys come to investigate.

They smell the peanuts and reach through the hole to grab them. The problem is that the hole in the pumpkin is not big enough for the monkeys to pull out their fists that are clenched and full of peanuts.

Of course, the monkeys refuse to open their fists and release the peanuts and you can figure out what happens.

The people quietly move in, pick up the trapped monkeys and ship them off to a zoo.


Jesus: Let Go of …

In today’s Gospel, Jesus calls us to do what these monkeys are unable to do.

He calls us to let go of some things. To use his words, he calls us says to “turn our backs on family, on self and on possessions.”

Now letting go of or “turning our backs on family, self and possessions” is a Hebrew way of expression in Jesus’ day. It is an exaggerated, negative way of saying something positive.

It is a way of saying: prefer or choose or make something else your priority. And then, do everything else guided by this priority or with this priority in mind.

So, in this context, Jesus wants us to love and value our family and friends. But he is also saying that sometimes we may have to act differently from them, if we are really going to be his disciples.

Jesus wants us to take care of and be true to ourselves. But he is also saying that sometimes we will be challenged to change our mindset or do what we would prefer not doing, if we are really going to be his disciples.

And while Jesus wants us to be responsible for our financial and material well-being and even to enjoy the goods of the earth, he is also saying that that we cannot get absorbed in earthly comforts if we are really going to be his disciples.

We will have to let go in these ways, as those monkeys failed to do. Doing this (1) Will not always easy and (2) It will not happen all at once.

In fact, I would hold that becoming a full disciple in the way that Jesus is talking about here is actually a process.

My thought is for you or me responding to Jesus’ call will be a process of becoming (1) First human, (2) then Christian and (3) only then a disciple.


Discipleship: A Process

For starters, we are (1) to become fully human.

Our spiritual development begins with the awareness that all human beings are created in the image and likeness of God. And so, we are to reverence persons and all created things and not misuse or abuse them.

We are to care for and not curse. We are to protect life and not destroy it.

And as we grow in our humanity and become more and more human, we are also (2) to become Christian.

At this step in the process, we come to identify more and more with the person of Jesus Christ. And so we seek to know God more and more through knowing God’s Son Jesus.

At this stage, we are able to put up with some hardship because we are strengthened by God’s grace especially in the Sacraments. Here we also work at becoming understanding and compassionate persons.

And then, finally, we as human and as Christian are ready to take the next step and (3) become full-fledged disciples of Jesus.

Again, with the image of those monkeys in mind, here we are willing to let go of anything that keeps us from being like Jesus. And so, we try to live the mystery of dying and rising in everyday life – dying to selfishness so that we can come to fuller and fuller life.

At this stage, even though we may have to defend ourselves, we let go of our instinct for vengeance, and seek peace and reconciliation instead. Here we also work to let go of our inclinations toward consumerism and find ways of sharing with those who do not have enough.


Conclusion

This is something of the challenging, perhaps even daunting life of a disciple of Jesus.

It takes a process of growth to get there: (1) From becoming more and more human (2) To becoming more and more Christian (3) To becoming a disciple.

No wonder that Jesus uses such jarring, almost radical expressions today to prepare us for this path of growth.

Am I willing to travel it? It will take opening your fist and letting go of your peanuts!