September 7, 2025, 23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time, Cycle C

Wisdom 9:13-18; Philemon 9-17; Luke 14:25-33

Homily

As we enter the final phase of the liturgical year, the cycle of Sunday Bible readings reminds us with increasing insistence of certain fundamental aspects of Christian life, especially the need to belong radically to Christ.

The text from Luke's Gospel that we have just read is at the heart of a long section (9:51-19:27) whose main theme is Jesus' journey to Jerusalem, where he will be put to death. At this point, large crowds are following Him on His journey. They will cheer Him on Palm Sunday as He enters Jerusalem, but we also know how quickly they will abandon Him and demand His death.

It is to these crowds—and not to a select few disciples—that Jesus outlines the requirements for anyone who wants to follow Him. These requirements can be summarized in two points: the first is that which saint Benedict summarizes in his Rule with the words: “Prefer nothing to Christ” (RB 4:24). “If anyone comes to me,” says Jesus, "without preferring me to his father, mother, wife, children, brothers and sisters, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. “ The second requirement is the willingness to accept all suffering, including the misunderstanding and persecution that such a radical choice may provoke. It is this ‘cross’ that Jesus speaks of, and not the small mortifications that one might impose on oneself. ”Whoever does not carry his cross and follow me,“ he says, ”cannot be my disciple. "

Luke then reports two logia of Jesus that he alone has preserved. These are two teachings of human prudence: before setting out to build something, one must sit down and examine whether one has everything necessary to bring the project to a successful conclusion; and before going to war against someone, one must check whether one has the necessary strength so as not to be crushed by the adversary.

After these two common-sense remarks, Jesus continues: "In the same way...—and this ‘in the same way’ is very important—any of you who does not renounce all his possessions cannot be my disciple. “ This shows that, in Jesus' thinking, the only ”prudent" attitude if one wants to be His disciple is to detach oneself from everything that is not Him. This is the only “prudent” attitude, because otherwise one cannot be happy, being divided between two masters. Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. And where your heart is, there your happiness will be also. If our heart is divided between Jesus and something else, we cannot be happy because we experience only internal divisions and dissatisfaction.

In the second reading, we have a beautiful example of someone who was able to give up everything to follow Christ: the apostle Paul. When Paul made his radical choice for Jesus, it meant a radical break with his entire past and his previous relationships. It even meant prison—and it was from prison that he wrote to Philemon. He exhorts Philemon to also go against the current, out of fidelity to Christ, by receiving his slave Onesimus no longer as a slave, but as a beloved brother. The concrete demands of following Christ are often unpredictable.

Armand Veilleux