13th Sunday In Ordinary Time

Readings:1Kings 19. 16b, 19-21, Galatians 5.1, 13-18, Luke 9.51-62

We have readings about discipleship today. it means to follow Jesus Christ? Perhaps for many people, following the Lord meant keeping the rules of the Church and being careful to avoid sin. While there is nothing wrong with keeping the rules of the Church and avoiding sin, this is surely not a description of following the Lord.

Following someone is not easy. The first reading today, Elisha realizes that he must following Elijah and be his disciple. Elijah does not encourage him, but Elisha follows anyway. We must realize that following the Lord Jesus means that at times we will feel rejected, even by the Lord Himself. We must keep on walking and letting the Lord form us.

In the Second reading Paul is exhorting his followers to stop talking badly about one another. Gossiping and saying bad things about others only ends up harming ourselves. We do not think that way when we are gossiping or saying bad things. But if we take the time to look deeply into life, we will find that putting others down, talking badly about others, really only destroys us and not them.

The Gospel of Luke is sometimes called the Gospel of Mercy. The followers if Jesus are ready to burn down a village because they will not listen to the Lord. Jesus has to rebuke them. We should never be surprised at the ways that the word of God is interpreted. We have people coming to Jesus who want to follow Him. Again, the message is given to them: it is not easy to follow the Lord. Again, this is important for us when we feel the difficulties of following the Lord Jesus. He tells us in advance: it will not get easy. the Gospel today ends telling us that if we start our, we should continue, no matters how difficult it is.

Let us allow these reading to touch us and form us today as we seek to follow the Lord. May our discipleship not get just words and good feelings, by the difficult task of truly following and making Jesus the most important person, the most important reality, in our lives. May He bless us!