Living according to the Gospel also makes us pay a price (Luke 9: 57-62). Jesus was magnetic; many got attracted to him spontaneously. Nobody gives his or her life for a cause that is dead. They all wanted to follow Jesus, but could not sustain because of three reasons.
Foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests, but the son of man has no place to lay his head. You are condemned to be in perennial disturbance. You will be homeless. You almost are not supposed to be happy, meaning enjoying the pleasures of life. Being joyful is a gospel value. There is a difference between happiness and joy (santhosham vs anandam). Jesus had a home; being there Jesus remained homeless. Pastoral care is our anxiety over the people. ‘Jesus found them like sheep without a shepherd.’ He had compassion for them.’I will bury my father and come back. It is often read as ‘let me fulfill my domestic responsibilities,’ but the passage does not indicate that his father or mother is dead. Jesus simply answered him, ‘Let the dead bury the dead.’ Burying the dead was a sacred act according to tradition and the Old Testament. Not even what you think is sacred should hold you back from the ‘now’. If it does, it would be the tragedy of the unseized moment; if you hesitate to embrace the moment, the opportunity that you are in, you will be sitting there forever. When an inspiration strikes surrender to it, it won't come again.
Let me go and bid farewell to my family. Like Lot’s wife running away from the burning village, if you look back you freeze; you cannot handle the loss and mess of the past. Many get stuck in the mess of the past. Correcting your past is a myth. Go ahead, or you will be numbed among the past. Start off with whatever is at hand. In Malayalam, the past is called Bhoothakalam, loosely meaning a time and space where the ghosts of the past live. No real moment can wait.
Radical changes are called for. Following Jesus is not a certain rearrangement. Radical is to change from the roots. Spirituality is not a patchwork. New clothes and old clothes cannot be stitched together, and new wine needs new wineskins.
Notes taken during my annual retreat, preached by Bobby Jose Kattikad, Capuchin.
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