The Revolution That Lasts - 23rd Sunday Ordinary Time

On a first reading, today's gospel sounds very harsh. How can we hate our parents, partners, children, brothers and sisters, even our own lives, and give up everything in order to follow him?

To understand it, we must consider the context in which Jesus was speaking. He was on his way to Jerusalem, to be murdered. Those following him on the journey did not know this which is why, just this once, he turned to them and asked them: Do you really know what you are doing?

The truth is that they didn't; they were following him for completely different reasons. They wanted change, a break with the existing order of oppression and misery. There were the hungry, who wanted to be fed; the sick who wanted to be healed; the poor, who wanted to become rich; even the dead, carried by their relatives, who, according to those relatives, wanted to be revived. And they all followed him enthusiastically, full of hope and very interested in the good things of life.

But he turned on them with his questions: are you sure that you are willing to walk my way? Do you know where I am going? Do you count the costs, and are you willing to pay them? There was clearly a misunderstanding between him and his followers. They were following him the old way. They had not changed their options in life. They wanted to profit from him, to get more things, a better position in the old order, to get the security that this world had never been able to offer.

They were thinking only of themselves, their families, their lives, their possessions. He, too, wanted change but a different kind of change. He was thinking of the Kingdom of God, the kingdom of the whole of humankind. He wanted to give them another life, with another option from within another vision.

Change has been a constant feature of human history with countless revolutions aimed at changing people's lives for the better. Almost half of humanity today is living in a post-revolutionary age. But how many of these revolutions have really changed things for the better? All too often it has been a case of the leaders changing places while the old order just gets a fresh coat of political paint. I think of W. B Yeats's acid comment about the efficacy of revolutionary change: "the beggars have changed places but the lash goes on ".

What Jesus was asking his followers (and ourselves) was something like the following: are you willing to change your option, to think in terms of the Kingdom of God with its different value system and mindset? The values and views of the Kingdom will always be at variance with those of the world. In practice, it will mean saying NO to much of what the world would have us say YES to. NO to violence in all its forms, to greed, exploitation and oppression, and YES to love, peace, justice, compassion and understanding. And this not in a negative but in a positive way that points to a different way of looking at life, one that offers meaning and hope.

So, let's try to see things in a different light and deal with them accordingly - with the help of our families and those closest to us!

I'll leave the final word on the Kingdom to a poet, the late R S Thomas:

It's a long way off, but to get
There takes no time and admission
Is free, if you will purge yourself
Of desire, and present yourself with
Your need only and the simple offering
Of your faith, green as a leaf. (The Kingdom).