THE WORD
FIRST READING: 1 Kgs 19,16.19-21
You shall also anoint Jehu, son of Nimshi, as king of Israel, and Elisha, son of Shaphat of Abel-meholah, as prophet to succeed you.
Elijah set out, and came upon Elisha, son of Shaphat, as he was plowing with twelve yoke of oxen; he was following the twelfth. Elijah went over to him and threw his cloak on him. Elisha left the oxen, ran after Elijah, and said, “Please, let me kiss my father and mother good-bye, and I will follow you.” Elijah answered, “Go back! What have I done to you?” Elisha left him and, taking the yoke of oxen, slaughtered them; he used the plowing equipment for fuel to boil their fl esh, and gave it to the people to eat. Then he left and followed Elijah to serve him.
SECOND READING: Gal 5,1.13-18
For freedom Christ set us free; so stand fi rm and do not submit again to the yoke of slavery. For you were called for freedom, brothers. But do not use this freedom as an opportunity for the flesh; rather, serve one another through love. For the whole law is fulfilled in one statement, namely, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” But if you go on biting and devouring one another, beware that you are not consumed by one another.
I say, then: live by the Spirit and you will certainly not gratify the desire of the flesh. For the flesh has desires against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; these are opposed to each other, so that you may not do what you want. But if you are guided by the Spirit, you are not under the law.
GOSPEL: Lk 9, 51-62
When the days for his being taken up were fulfilled, he resolutely determined to journey to Jerusalem, and he sent messengers ahead of him. On the way they entered a Samaritan village to prepare for his reception there, but they would not welcome him because the destination of his journey was Jerusalem. When the disciples James and John saw this they asked, “Lord, do you want us to call down fire from heaven to consume them?” Jesus turned and rebuked them, and they journeyed to another village.
As they were proceeding on their journey someone said to him, “I will follow you wherever you go.” Jesus answered him, “Foxes have dens and birds of the sky have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to rest his head.”
And to another he said, “Follow me.” But he replied, “(Lord,) let me go first and bury my father.” But he answered him, “Let the dead bury their dead. But you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.”
And another said, “I will follow you, Lord, but fi st let me say farewell to my family at home.” (To him) Jesus said, “No one who sets a hand to the plow and looks to what was left behind is first for the kingdom of God.”
IN OTHER WORDS
Along the way to Jerusalem, Jesus meets three men who want to join his group and become his followers. The evangelist Luke presents these three encounters to teach us three tough lessons about what it means to follow Christ, to be a real Christian.
Jesus makes it clear that if we want to follow him, we have to expect difficulties. It is popular nowadays to focus only on the advantages of being a Christian: the blessings God wants to give us, the forgiveness and the peace of heart and mind that comes with it, the strength God’s grace gives to live truly decent, righteous lives. These are real bene ts, no doubt. They are not to be ignored. We should desire them and be grateful for them. But they are not the whole story.
Never forget: Jesus only reached Easter Sunday by passing through Good Friday, and Christians can expect nothing less.
Keeping our hands to the plow applies also to the dramatic temptations that try to lure us away from our friendship with Christ. And it applies to the normal, ordinary difficulties of every day.
Plowing fields is not a very exciting or dramatic work. And yet, without it you can’t bring in a harvest. In the same way, unless we are faithful to Christ in the normal tasks of our daily lives, we cannot grow in Christian virtue, and we cannot bring in the harvest of joy, peace, and fulfillment that Christ wants to give us.
In the case of the third man who wants to follow Jesus, he uses an image from the world of farmers: Keep the hand on the plow and look ahead! Keeping our hands to the plow in daily life means being faithful to our everyday responsibilities. It means doing our jobs the way Christ would do them if he were in our position. It means doing our chores the way the holy family did them in Nazareth: responsibly, thoroughly, and humbly. It means using our time well, not wasting it on habits of laziness and self-indulgence. It means patiently putting up with the imperfections of those around us, day after day, just as God puts up with our own imperfections.
It means – to use Pope Francis’ words - to be not “Christians of words,” the “Lord, Lord, Lord Christians” as he called them… “masquerading as Christians” but be “Christians of action and in truth.”
This is the bread-and-butter of Christian living. This is what it means to be the salt of the earth and the light of the world. This is keeping our hands to the plow. It’s not always dramatic and exciting, but it’s the only way to heaven.
- Fr. Rudy Horst, SVD | CKMS, Quezon City
The Word in other words 2016
An annual project of Logos Publications, The WORD in Other Words Bible Diary contains daily scripture readings and reflections written by priest, brothers, and sisters of the three congregations founded by St. Arnold Janssen (the SVD, SSpS, and SSpSAP). It hopes to serve as a daily companion to readers who continually seek the correlation of the Word of God and human experience.
