(This article courtesy of the Arlington Catholic Herald.)
Shortly before the Second World War, a German theologian wrote a book entitled The Cost of Discipleship. The title of this book summarizes well, I think, the theme of today’s liturgy.
Our gospel reading explicitly treats of this reality. Jesus said to the crowds: “If anyone comes to me without hating his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not carry his cross and come after me cannot be my disciple…. [A]nyone of you who does not renounce all his possessions cannot be my disciple.” Jesus is detailed and unambiguous about what is required to be His disciple. Why? Because Jesus wants His disciples to understand that they must be radically dependant upon Him, and He wants them to consider ahead of time what it will cost them to follow Him as a disciple.
In today’s gospel, Jesus uses two examples from the lives of his contemporaries to illustrate “the cost” involved in discipleship. The “cost” is indeed giving up our will and becoming totally dependent on God’s will. In a word, to be a disciple is to be holy. Holiness orders all things right, and orients our entire lives toward God. The consequence of a life focused on God is that we stop focusing on ourselves, and are freed to serve Him and others for His sake. As disciples we are entrusted with particular tasks depending on our specific vocation, and it is holiness that allows us to fulfill these tasks and serve God as faithful disciples. Pope John Paul II in his Apostolic Letter Novo Millennio Ineunte points to holiness as the cornerstone of the disciple’s life saying: “It is necessary…to rediscover the full practical significance of chapter 5 of the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church Lumen Gentium, dedicated to the ‘universal call to holiness…. This…objective gift of holiness is offered to all the baptized” (30).
There are various ways that God calls individuals to holiness and to discipleship. These ways are the various vocations in the Church: marriage, priesthood, religious life (more often now called the consecrated life), and the single life. In each of these vocations, Jesus has planted the seeds of holiness so that when He calls us to be His disciples we can grow in holiness.
Common to the life of every disciple of Jesus, regardless of his or her individual vocation, is the necessity of prayer and witness. Pope John Paul II in the same Apostolic Letter states: “This training in holiness calls for a Christian life distinguished above all in the art of prayer…. Prayer develops that conversation with Christ which makes us his intimate friends…. This reciprocity is the very substance and soul of the Christian life…” (32). Prayer is essential to the life of the disciple. Prayer imparts the needed grace to endure and fulfill the cost of discipleship. Witness is the second part of this two-fold foundation of the life of every disciple. In each vocation, there is an element of witness. Some disciples witness with words in the public forum, like Saint Paul. Others, like Saint Clare of Assisi or Saint Therese of Lisieux, leave the world and in so doing witness to the transcendent. Your founder, Saint John Baptist de La Salle, witnessed to the need for Christian education and gathered together religious brothers to teach and to form the young. Regardless of which vocation we have been called to, we need to pray and we need to witness. Again our Holy Father tells us: “A new century, a new millennium are opening in the light of Christ. But not everyone can see this light” (54). Quoting Gaudium et Spes he writes: “The Christian message does not inhibit men and women from building up the world, or make them disinterested in the welfare of their fellow human beings: on the contrary it obliges them more fully to do these very things” (no. 34).
This afternoon, we are united in prayer with a fellow disciple, who fifty years ago embraced God’s call to him to be a Brother of the Christian Schools. Brother James, with such joy and affection are we gathered with you today! You heard the invitation to follow Christ more closely in the footsteps of Saint John Baptist de La Salle. In the opening days of your formation at Barrytown and in all the days since then, you have continuously pondered the cost of discipleship. Different situations posed the ongoing challenge of giving up your will to surrender to the will of the Father, made manifest in this concrete way or in that. Each of us is similarly challenged, and when through God’s grace, we repeat our “yes,” we grow in holiness, in genuine discipleship.
This afternoon, dear Brother James, you gladden the heart of this student of yours by affording me the privilege of being the Principal Celebrant of this Jubilee Mass and of preaching the homily. In my name and in the name of all who are gathered here and of the many other students whose lives are enriched by your presence, teaching and example as a Christian Brother, I offer sincerest congratulations and the pledge of our prayer. Saint Paul’s unmistakable affection for Philemon and for Onesimus, described in our second reading, touches us. This same affection we express to you, for you have taught us to follow Christ, and now, with you, we are partners in the service of the Gospel. Soon we shall hear you renew your vows as a Brother of the Christian Schools; as you do that, we shall be inspired to renew our own commitment to the specific vocation to which God has called each of us.
Brother James, together we thank you for your commitment these fifty years as a son of Saint La Salle and we again congratulate you. Permit me to conclude with these words of Pope John Paul II, addressed to consecrated persons in his Apostolic Letter Vita Consecrata. “You know the one in whom you have put your trust (cf. 2 Tim. 1:12): give him everything!…Do not forget that you, in a very special way, can and must say that you not only belong to Christ but that ‘you have become Christ’” (no. 109). Live Jesus in our hearts forever!
