September 5, 2004: Putting Christ First

The Twenty-Third Sunday in Ordinary Time
September 5, 2004



The Book of Wisdom opens with a mysterious question today: “Who can know what the will of God is, and who can figure out what the Lord means?”

It’s pretty clear that God’s thoughts are not our thoughts. His thoughts aren’t even close to our thoughts!

We’re thinking: keep my body beautiful and healthy. He’s thinking: save the soul.
We dream of a pay raise. He dreams of raising the dead.

We do everything to avoid pain and seek peace. God uses pain to bring peace.

We promise ourselves: I’m going to live before I die. But God commands us: Die, so you can live.

We love the things that rust. He loves what endures.

We rejoice at our successes. He rejoices at our confessions.

We show our children the rich and famous — the pro athletes, the movie and TV stars, the most famous politicians and business executives — and say: Be like them. God points to His broken, bleeding Son on the cross and says: No, be like Him.

OK. We’re supposed to listen to Jesus and watch what He does so we can copy Him. So what’s this business in the Gospel today what we’re supposed to hate our parents, our husband or wife, our children, our brothers and sisters? How very odd! I guess it’s clear that God’s thoughts aren’t our thoughts.

We’ve all heard the Christmas carol, “Good King Wenceslaus.” The song is all about Wenceslaus, the patron saint of the Czech people, who lived 1100 years ago. In fact, his feast day is coming up at the end of this month — on September 28. His father, the Duke of Bohemia, was a Christian who was killed in battle when Wenceslaus was a young boy. His mother became a Christian in name only, just to please her husband, but she didn’t practice her faith. Fortunately, Wenceslaus had a saintly grandmother named Ludmilla who brought up the young prince to be a true follower of Christ.

There was a lot of rivalry and intrigue in Wenceslaus’ family, especially when he became king. His mother was jealous of his grandmother’s influence. And his own brother, Boleslas, schemed to take over the throne. One night Wenceslaus went to pray in front of the tabernacle, as he often did. Right before the altar, his own brother stabbed him to death.

Does this sound like your family? People upset and angry and jealous and unforgiving — maybe downright mean — towards one another?

This is not the kind of hate that Our Lord is speaking of in the Gospel.

In the Hebrew — or more accurately, the Aramaic — language of Jesus’ day, if someone wanted to say, “I prefer this and not that” — he would actually say, “I like this and I hate that.” To hate something meant to like something less than something else. St. Matthew records the meaning of Christ’s words more clearly to our way of speaking when he says, “He who loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me” (Mt. 10, 37).

In other words, Jesus says that everyone who wants to follow Him must love Him more than anybody or anything else — even more than our parents and family. Thank God, most parents, unlike the mother and brother of Wenceslaus, are the very ones who inspire us to love Our Lord above everyone else.

So now comes the moment when we have to examine ourselves about this. Are we followers of Christ in that sense? What comes first in our lives?

For lots of people these days, it’s money. To the drunkard, it’s his bottle or beer can. To the impure, it’s the body of his companion or his pornography. To the Mass-misser, it’s a few more hours of sleep, or a fishing trip, a camping trip, a shopping trip. To the proud, it’s honors and praise. Seeking justice for all people — whatever their race, religion, ability, status in life, gender or sexual orientation, wealth, education, cleanliness, you name it! — is way down the list of what many people want. But that’s precisely what Jesus meant: His example, His commands must come first.

St. Wenceslaus had a special, personal love for Christ in the Blessed Sacrament. He built churches and repaired them. He visited Our Lord many times every day. He even planted with his own hands the wheat and grapes for the bread and wine of the Mass. He not only reached up to Christ in prayer, he reached out to the needy with help — all for the sake of Christ.

This is what Christ is asking of us today. Prefer Christ, choose Christ, think of Christ, follow Christ — before everything else. Absolutely everything else.

In a few moments, at this very altar, we will raise up Our Lord as an offering to His heavenly Father. With great love and humility and trust, let us unite ourselves to Him. Promise to put Him first in all things. Your presence here today is one proof that you put Christ before a lot of other things. Ask St. Wenceslaus, the Blessed Mother, and your own patron saint to help you put Jesus first every day… every minute. Do this and you are on your way to being a true follower of Jesus.

God bless you!



Today’s Readings:
Wisdom 9, 13–18
Psalm 90
Philemon 9–17
Luke 14, 25–33