Gospel Commentary: Get Up and Follow

By Fr. Jack Peterson
Herald Columnist
(From the issue of 6/24/04)

Our God is a jealous God. He wants His followers to be wholehearted and radical in their response to His call in their lives. He expects total commitment. He grows weary of our excuses.

In our Gospel today, Jesus is on his way to Jerusalem and has a series of seemingly strange interactions that help us to penetrate both the mystery of Pentecost and the power of the Holy Spirit to enable the Christian to surrender his heart and his life completely to Christ.

Someone says to Jesus: "I will follow you wherever you go." Jesus, who normally seeks out followers and works hard to bring them into the flock, responds saying, "foxes have dens and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head." This is not the most welcoming response to the man’s kind offer. Jesus wants to make it clear what it means to follow Him. One who follows Him cannot be attached to the things of this world, even to one’s home. Rather, Jesus’ "follower" is one who is more attached to Christ and what He may ask of him than he is to where he lays his head. If Jesus were to ask him to get up and go somewhere to perform a task, he would do it, just like Abraham, our father in faith. This freedom to do what God might ask requires a real detachment from the things of this world, even from good things like homes and jobs.

Jesus then issues a call to another disciple: "Follow me." This person responds by asking to go and bury his father. This is certainly a reasonable request; it is, in fact, a corporal work of mercy. Jesus responds: "Let the dead bury their dead. But you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God." Jesus certainly means no disrespect for the dead. He does not mean that the dead should in fact be left to bury the dead. The Lord is using a kind of exaggeration to make a point. We often make excuses to duck the Gospel and the way of life spelled out by that Good News. But Jesus says to us if you want to be my disciple, you must be my follower first and foremost. Everything else in your life, including family and work and pleasure will then find its proper place after me.

Jesus had brilliant insights into human nature. He knew his followers’ hearts well. He challenged the "all say and no do" disease. Many people were inspired by his life and his message. They were caught up in the moment. But when it came down to true conversion and an authentic living of this new way of life, many were full of excuses.

If we are honest with ourselves, we might recognize that we, too, are often full of excuses. Many of them are downright poor: I do not have time to pray; I can never make it to Church when they have confessions; I have no gifts to offer in service of the Church; I do not have any resources to offer to the poor. Some of them are good excuses for the moment, but then become one in a string of many that prevent us from giving ourselves to the Lord: I need to bury my father; I need to fix up my home; I need to finish my degree.

Spend some time this week in quiet prayer with the Lord, preferably in front of the Blessed Sacrament. Ask Him to let you know what He wants from you right now in order to be an authentic "follower." Ponder the latest excuses you have used to avoid truly offering yourself to Him. Beg for the grace to say "Yes!" to his will and to act on it today.

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