What Is the Cost of Discipleship?

By Bishop Paul S. Loverde
Special to the Herald
(From the issue of 9/9/04)

In 1937, nearly two years before the beginning of World War II, a German Lutheran pastor and theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote a book that he called The Cost of Discipleship. The title of that book summarizes well, I think, the theme of today’s liturgy.

Using two stories about planning ahead before taking action, Jesus is asking us to consider what following Him will involve, that is, He is asking us to consider the cost of being His disciples. As we listen to Jesus’ own words in today’s gospel account, we indeed find them to be stark and blunt. "If anyone comes to me without hating his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. … anyone of you who does not renounce all his possessions cannot be my disciple." What is Jesus really asking of us as He invites us to be His disciples?

The cost of discipleship is total commitment to Jesus. In other words, Jesus Christ must be the Lord of our lives. He must hold the first place in our hearts. Every thought, word or action, every decision, must always be seen in relation to Him and to His Plan for us.

So, when Jesus says that to be His disciple involves hating father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, and even one’s own life, He means that we are to love all these people less than we love Him. "To hate" is a Hebraism meaning to "love less." However, when we make Jesus the first love of our lives, we will know how to love all others well in Him.

When Jesus tells us that to be His disciples involves carrying our cross and following after Him, He means that we must resemble Him, doing now what He did then. He united His will with God’s Will and that meant for Him the cross. We too must try daily to make our will one with God’s and that entails putting aside what we want in order to do what He asks; that entails following His footsteps even though they lead us to the cross in some form or other. However, when we make Jesus the first love of our lives, we learn how to carry the cross with patient resignation and even with joy. We discover that Jesus Himself carries our cross with us.

When Jesus says that to be His disciple involves renouncing all our possessions, He means that we must find our ultimate and lasting security, not in possessions, but in Him, who is the source of our strength. However, when we make Jesus the first love of our lives, we learn how to use our possessions in a way that respects the Gospel and bring about our true welfare and the welfare of others.

When Jesus is the first love of our lives, we are trying to express our total commitment to Him. And that is what the cost of discipleship really means.

To be totally committed to the Lord Jesus implies that we know Him and His Plan for our lives. This personal knowledge, which leads to a deepening commitment in love, spans our entire life; it is ongoing and continuous. That is why our formation in faith never ends. Seen within this context, we better appreciate the indispensable role of our Catholic schools, our religious education programs, youth ministry and adult formation. These are the instruments of a continuing process whereby we come to know and love Jesus more and more and can thereby live in total commitment to Him.

To be totally committed to the Lord Jesus also implies witnessing to Him and to the truths He proclaims in the Gospel. This witness can take place only in one place – in daily life, within the family, the community and society. As disciples of the Lord who is the Truth, we must bring the light of His truth into every sphere of human activity. This means that we evaluate behaviors and decisions from the perspective of Christ’s words and actions as they are understood in the scriptures, the living tradition of the Church and the official teachings of the Church. We do not impose our values on society but rather bring the Truth to enlighten and to guide ourselves and others so that the true dignity and worth of every person may be respected and protected.

The cost of discipleship is total commitment to Jesus. And this total commitment demands living it day by day for the entire span of our life. To do this is not always easy. In fact, we cannot do it on our own. However, the Lord comes to our rescue, giving us wisdom and strength, as today’s first reading reminds us. In fact, God the Holy Spirit comes to help us, renewing in us the seven gifts He first gave us in the Sacrament of Confirmation.

Yes, there is a cost to being Christ’s disciple – the cost of being totally committed to the Lord Jesus. Today, at this Mass, let us renew our commitment to the Lord. Let us make our own these words of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, written in a Nazi prison shortly before his death. "Who am I? They mock me, these lonely questions of mine. Whoever I am, Thou knowest, O God, I am Thine!"

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