September 7, 2025 at Saint Peter and Saint William Catholic Churches in Naples, FL
Wisdom 9: 13-18 + Psalm 90 + Philemon 9-10, 12-17 + Luke 14: 25-33
Hyperbole was, and in some rabbinical schools still is, a way of teaching and making a point. It is a bold exaggeration used for dramatic effect and shock value to jump start some thinking. We can’t just ignore what Jesus says today thinking: “Oh, he didn’t really mean that” and just turn the page. We have to ask the crucial question, “What does he mean?” And, “How should my life be changed by this teaching?” The point is not how we relate to members of our families, but how we respond to the call of God. Think of it this way. In the face of merciless behavior by someone in our family what are we to do, shrug it off and say to the victim, “What can I do? After all, blood is thicker than water.” This is what challenges that attitude, “My country right or wrong.” The issue is loyalty, and that is where Jesus is going with this. Loyalty to God comes first. When my country or my employer, or my family does or says something contrary to what God expects, we do not shrug it off. We stand up and we speak up. It might be costly.
Jesus is not trying to scare people away from following him. But, he is afraid that we may spend our lives avoiding challenges, looking for easy ways and easy answers, playing around in the shallows of life while the real adventure is in the deep end.
I watched a mother not long ago at our community pool teaching her son how to swim. With his arms and legs in motion, she stood in front him. He was really doing quite well until he began to near that rope with markers floating. Every time he got near that marker, his eyes got wide, his face got red, and you see the panic as his head came up braking the smooth motions of arms and legs. She kept backing up though and I heard her say: “Don’t be afraid. I’m still here. Swimming in the deep water is just the same. Trust me.” All Jesus asks of us is trust because he will not abandon us. With him, we can quit playing the shallows and risk the deep and the unknown.
We all know what it’s like and what it takes to go deeper. I left the seminary without a clue about what was next. Most of you said, “Yes” to someone who offered you a ring and the promise to stay with you. With no clue about what it would take, how long, and what it might cost, you did it anyway. For many of us, it has not been easy either. There were bad times, disappointment, hurts, and even sometimes broken promises and betrayals. Loyalty or commitment means sacrifice, change, and sometimes loss. Everything we believe in fully or long for comes with a cost. Think about how your lives changed when you became parents and what it cost you. Even for someone you love, there is sacrifice, and sometimes it does not turn out well. If you knew ahead of time the challenge that children can be without the great joy they can bring this world would be childless.
Probably if we knew the whole story about anything ahead of time we might hesitate before we jump into things, and this is what Jesus is talking about today. This is a message of reassurance to anyone who will set out into the deep, take risks in faith, and remain loyal to God and the mission of his son entrusted to us. No matter how tough it gets, he is still with us calling us to trust and have no fear in the face of violence and injustice or anything else that keeps anyone from their place in the Kingdom of God.