(7th Sep 2025) Homily for 23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time

Read: (Wis 9:13-18; Phile 1:9-10, 12-17; Lk 14: 25-33)

Reflect: Discipleship is Divine…

Dear friends, we are in the Twenty Second Sunday in Ordinary Time. The liturgy of the word invites us to understand the significance of discipleship in divinity. Discipleship in Jesus is always a divine work. To be disciples of Jesus is a divine feel, because we follow Jesus the divine Master in order to be holy and authentic. The discipleship has a divine origin, because our call to discipleship is divine and therefore it costs us a lot to be moulded, shaped and guided by the divine Lord to be disciples after the heart of Christ. The readings of the day give us how we can keep the discipleship divine and intact from falsity and follies. So based on the liturgy of the word, I would like to share with you three points of reflection.

1.     God’s plan is best:

God’s plan is the best plan, because God plans out things in such a way that even what we feel worst at times turns out to be the best for all. God’s plans are never in the air rather it is concrete and substantial. It becomes applicable and suitable to all at all times, provided one realizes it. The first reading from the book of wisdom unfolds us the wisdom of God saying, “What human being can learn the counsel of God? Or who can discern what the Lord wills? For the reasoning of mortals is worthless and our designs are likely to fail.” Yes, we are all inadequate or find difficulty in understanding the counsel of God or discerning the will of God, but it is possible to grasp the plan of God by His grace and assistance. 

The disciples who have divine call or divine feel would consider the plan of God as best. Because when our call and feel is divine, our movement will automatically be directed towards the divine. Today all of us have our own plans and projects; our plans and projects become the top priority; at times our plans and projects become a total failure, because it is not in correspondence with the plan of God or perhaps it is not the worth in the sight of God. We hear in the Gospel (Lk: 12:7; Matt 10:30) “Why, even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not; you are of more value than many sparrows.”  Yes, If God could count the number of hairs on our heads and value us more than a little sparrow, would he not plan out the best for us  and make our lives best. So when we rely on God’s plan, wonders begin to happen. Let us believe in God’s plan. 

Today, it is an opportune time for us to take a U-turn in our lives to know the plans and projects of God for us. The first reading very clearly points out ways and means to know the plans of God that we need to learn the counsel of God and discern God’s will. The counsel of God is sought in and through the wisdom of God and spirit that God offers us. It is like King Solomon, who prayed for wisdom and the spirit of God to animate his life. I am sure, once we obtain the wisdom from God and the spirit of God from above, we would orient our lives to doing God’s will, because it is the wisdom from God and the spirit of God enables us to seek God’s will, do God’s will and fulfill God’s will. So what we need to do is to know the counsel of God and discern God’s will in our lives, which is obtained by our close union with God in prayer. Let us make prayer as the foundation of life to know the counsel of God and discern God’s will in our lives. 

2.    Make others loved

‘Making others loved’ is a beautiful expression of how we could still love the other even if one is unworthy, weak and vulnerable. It is a selfless act of love for the other. It would mean that we look at others with the eyes of Jesus, who loved us as children of God and not as sinners. If we have observed in our lives, more than self-love, selfless love for others has a value. Self-love we do nothing more than the ordinary, but by selfless love we go beyond the ordinary and prove ourselves as reflection of God’s image to others. Loving others will prove how much we care or support. The lack of genuine love in our relationship with one another makes the relations false, no depth, at times they quit or run away from us. That’s what we see in the second reading from the letters to Philemon, where Onesimus the slave runs away from his master. St. Paul sends Onesimus a slave back to his own master and requests him not to have Onesimus as a slave rather accept him as a beloved brother. 

We all know that the slavery system existed long before in history. The type of slavery system that existed shows that the slaves were under the master and they were obliged to obey the master. There was even a Roman slave badge in the olden days that was marked with the words, “Seize me if I should try to escape and send me back to my master.” It is even said that the city of Corinth seemed to have functioned as a clearinghouse for slaves, for a large market near the temple of Apollo served as a place for buying and selling of slaves. Moreover, Paul’s explicit counsel to slaves we find in his letter to Corinthians (1 Cor 1: 20, 26; 1 Cor 7: 20-24). 

Certainly, we can be sure that the disciples who have divine origin and nature will not treat others as slaves but as beloved brothers and sisters in the Lord. St. Paul tells the master of Onesimus to accept him not as a slave but as a beloved brother. Today, there are many who are treated as slaves and who have become part of slavery, enslaving themselves to addictions of bad things and acts, but if we could care for one another with love and compassion, we would not let others entangle themselves to ruin by various addictions in life.  

While we look deeply into the longings and desires of human persons, it is not the food, clothing and shelter one longs for but for pure love that would promote our living and contribute our union with God and one another. Let us be promoters of that love in the world, the love that brings union and communion with God and with one another. Let us not consider others as subjects or objects rather as human beings or children, created by God and all the more consider them as beloved brothers and sisters in the Lord. Surely, with these attitudes and approaches, all would feel loved and experience the warmth of love as God loves us in and through Christ. 

As Pope Leo would say, “In Christ, God has made himself a neighbour to every man and woman. Therefore, each one of us can and must become a neighbor to those we meet along the way. Following the example of Jesus, savior of the world, we too are called to bring consolation and hope, especially to those who are discouraged and disappointed.” Perhaps, the reflection of Pope Leo was given, based on the parable of the Good Samaritan, but it could be applied here as well. We can be a Good Samaritan to someone, who are entangled in various addictions and face dejection and depression in life. Let us then try to make others loved by our help and support, reaching out to them in love and compassion as Christ did for us and  as St. Paul did to Onesimus the slave. 

3.   Renounce unnecessary attachments:

Blessed John Ruysbroeck, in an Augustinian canon and one of the most important of the Flemish mystics says, “The merit of renouncing one’s own will is invariably greater and more precious than getting one’s own way.” Yes, renunciation of oneself has greater merit when we do it for a greater cause. Renunciation is nothing but abandonment. If we want to become part of the divine discipleship, there are certain things that we need to renounce. That’s why someone has said it aptly, “to be a disciple is a costly affair and all the more to be a disciple of Christ is even more costly for following Christ involves the mind of Christ, mannerisms of Christ in life. In order to obtain Christ’s mind and mannerisms we need the grace of God, courage, commitment and conviction.

That’s what we find in the Gospel reading of the day.  In today’s Gospel reading, Jesus points out very clearly who could be his disciples. The Disciples of Christ need to love God more than the family and family members; the disciple of Christ has to renounce oneself; the disciple of Christ has to carry one’s own cross and follow Jesus and not anybody. After saying what the disciples need to renounce, Jesus gives two perfect imageries; an image of an architect and a King going for a war, so as to how the disciples need to be clear and devise a ways and means to execute the plans well to find success in any work or task entrusted. Such disposition from the disciples would chisel themselves as perfect Disciples of Christ. 

As we know well that an architect plans or produces a blueprint to start a new project or construction and a king who goes to wage a war against another plans how well he can handle or prudently defeat the opposite party, so shall be our plans in order to overthrow the powers of evil. Just as the construction of a building is collapsed when we do not build properly without a foundation, structure and plan; just as a king and his kingdom become a victim to those who wage war when not proper methods and measures are taken in the battle, so shall be the life of the Disciples of Christ.  If they don’t plan their journey as disciples with the plan of God, their life will be in ruins or the life of others will be in ruin. 

There are many of us who follow Jesus as disciples, do we renounce all that is ungodly or unbecoming of us as Disciples of Christ. We need to examine and cross check them, and make the right decision that would bring us closer to God by detachment of unnecessary powers and pleasures of the world. Most of us as Disciples of Christ still cling on to our own ways of living. Whether it is money or power or honor or family ties for that matter, we just seek after or we never grow weary of it. But Jesus reminds us to renounce certain ways and means in order to be true followers of Christ. We need to renounce ourselves from selfish acts, jealousy, gossip, goods and gadgets that grip us to the worldly ways, pride and arrogance etc. 

I am sure you all would agree with me that total renunciation requires total love for God. If we love God truly, we would be able to renounce all that is hindering us to come closer to God. That’s what Pope Leo would exhort us the power of love saying, “Jesus is the revelation of true love for God and for all. Love that gives itself and does not possess, love that forgives and does not demand, love that helps and never abandons.” Yes, Jesus is the perfect revelation of God’s love for humanity. If we make Jesus our own, we will never be disowned by him. If we disown everything for Christ’s sake, God will own us completely for himself. So let us remember, we cannot be the owners of both God and money; if we wish to choose God, his ways and works, we have to renounce all that hinders us to choose God, his ways and works. So, let us renounce all that is worldly or ungodly to be Disciples of Christ. Let God be the first in our lives, I am sure the best of things and eternal blessings we would secure forever. 

Respond:

Do I accept and understand the plan of God as best or do I cling on my personal plans as best?

Do I treat others as beloved brothers and sisters or treat them as slaves and subjects or objects?

Do I renounce worldly pleasures and pressures for God’s work and God’s glory?

Let us accept and believe in the plan of God, accept others as beloved brothers and sisters in the Lord and renounce all that is worldly to keep the divine discipleship intact from falsity and duplicity. Amen.

We practice detachment in three areas: renunciation of external possession; mortification of the body, and detachment of heart, of things that we hold dear. (AE VI, 122, Conf. 8, SC I, pp. 92).

God Bless us all…Live Jesus

Fr. Ramesh George MSFS

rameshvkmsfs@gmail.com)

Ph: 9500930968