The Scriptures today refer to God’s call and the necessity for us to provide an answer to that call with an act of faith. If we truly believe the Lord to be the sovereign in the center of our hearts, then we must obey God’s call without delay or excuse. In today’s First Reading (1 Kings 19: 16b, 19-21) God had instructed Elijah that Elisha is to succeed him as a prophet of Israel. But upon hearing of this call, Elisha wanted to go and bid farewell to his family, and perhaps get his affairs in order. Once Elisha realizes that he must leave everything and go right then, not only does he lay down the reins to his father’s plow (for he had been plowing his father’s fields with a team of twelve yoked oxen), but slaughtered the twelve oxen and boiled them over a fire that was fueled by the burning plow, then distributing the meat for his people to eat. For Elisha, there was no turning back, now! He set the stage for what Jesus’ Apostles would do centuries later, when they would abandon their fishing boats and nets (Peter, Andrew, James, and John) or customs post (Matthew/Levi) to follow Jesus.
In today’s Gospel (Luke 9:51-62), Jesus calls others to follow him but, like Elisha, they have excuses – they need more time; they are not ready to go. The Lord “has nowhere to rest his head” and his days are numbered, but still he presses on, inviting others to join him on the way of the cross. They will not go. Perhaps it is a sign of the abandonment and isolation Jesus is set to endure in his last hours, as almost everyone he cared about refuses to stay at his side, and Peter denied three times that he even
knew Jesus.
The Lord is calling all of us. He calls us to be his prophets, apostles, disciples, friends, to serve one another through love, as Saint Paul encouraged the Galatians to do in today’s Second Reading (Galatians 5:1, 13-18). Given the reality that human love, alone, is not enough to sustain us, we seek something more. That is when faith steps in. It is God’s love that can satisfy our hunger and yearning. It is God’s love and grace that can fulfill our need for love and sustain us through the most difficult times. It is God’s love for us that enables us to serve others out of that same love. This is one of the main reasons that the Son of God became one of us through the Incarnation – to reveal the depth of God’s love to us. Jesus showed us how we are to live. He taught us that we are to turn to God and allow his love to fill our hearts. Then, we are to share God’s love with others.
The time for excuses is long past. Whether we feel unworthy, unwilling, or afraid, let us trust in the Lord and leave it all behind and follow him, that he may lead us to himself, and to the Father in heaven.