Cost

 

The Spiritual Waiting Room

Cost

Radical   Commitment

Relinquish   Surrender   Follow

Renounce All Your Possessions

Discipleship

(Photo and poem by Kathy McNamara)

Scripture:   Luke 14:33

One day Jesus was talking to a huge crowd that was following Him. He spoke to them about what it means to really follow Him and said,

"If you do not renounce all of your possessions, you cannot be My disciple."

Reflection

We are all worried about costs. There is always talk of inflation and people are concerned that they will not have enough money to feed their families and to pay for housing. Costs seem to be rising all the time.

If we apply costs to following Jesus, we might wonder how much we would give of ourselves in following Jesus. Would you follow Jesus just a little bit or would you give yourself completely to Jesus?

We could respond by claiming that I follow Jesus by going to Mass on Sunday. A lot of my fellow Catholics do not bother to go to Mass on Sundays. Therefore, I follow Jesus more than they do.

However, Jesus seems to be asking for much more from us. He is asking us to make a radical commitment to following Him. It means that we put Jesus first. It means that we are willing to make sacrifices of our time, talent, and treasure to share the Good News.

We do this when we relinquish our own desires and reflect on what Jesus would want us to do. Imagine being in a situation where your friends are putting someone down and destroying this person's reputation. 

In that type of circumstance, we might have the desire to either go along with our friends in order to be more accepted or to just be quiet. When we bring Jesus into the equation, we might talk about the dignity of each human being as a child of God. We should not be putting anyone down.

We surrender our desire to be accepted and liked. We make the decision to follow Jesus instead. It can be very challenging and uncomfortable to do this. 

I remember a conversation that I was part of during which all the participants were complaining about our profession as religious educators. I spoke up and said that I felt it was a blessing to be able to share the gospel message with children, teens, and adults. After an awkward silence, the dialogue went in a different direction.  

Jesus calls us in this passage from Luke to renounce all of our possessions, both our material possessions and our desire to be accepted by others. It can seem like a great cost to pay to follow Jesus. We like certain possessions and can become very attached to them. 

The question we have to ask ourselves is, "Are those possessions more important to me than following Jesus?" Our answer to that question comes from our relationship with Jesus. If I place Jesus first in my life and in my heart, all of those possessions pale in importance to that relationship. 

Being a disciple of Jesus involves sacrifice and a radical commitment. What flows from that cost of discipleship is a love for the message of Jesus and all of God's children. That Love fills us, and we begin to realize that the cost is minimal compared to the joy that dwells within us. 

Are you willing to pay the cost?

1. Are you concerned about the costs you have to pay for food and housing?

2. Do you feel that you follow Jesus completely?

3. Is going to Mass on Sunday following Jesus completely?

4. Is it more important to you to be accepted by others or to follow Jesus?

5. What do you feel as you reflect on Kathy's photo?

(Scripture adaptation, reflection, and questions by John J. McNamara)