Homily for the Twenty-third Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year C

If you travel north-west of Birmingham, there is another, smaller city called

Wolverhampton. Before I was born it used to have two main railway stations,

but one of them was closed, and for many years it was just left to stand and

decay, in the hope that at some point it might be restored. Finally around the

turn of the century, permission was granted for it to be converted into a hotel,

and work also began on the site of the former sidings and sheds to build houses

and apartments [check]. But then the crash of 2008 hit. For quite some time,

the buildings stood as half- completed empty shells. Then, some years later, I

happened to go past and found they had all been built. The money had been

found and finally they had become homes.

“For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count

the cost, whether he has enough to complete it?” We can’t calculate in pounds

and pence what it costs to follow the Lord – it’s something priceless. But it has

its own cost. When Our Lord speaks of hating father, mother, wife, children

and so on, He obviously doesn’t mean a literal hate, but He’s saying in a very

strong way that God comes first. I remember speaking to someone once who

told me that, when he was young, he thought he had a vocation to either the

priesthood or religious life, but because his father disapproved, he went into

business instead. Meanwhile, another man told me that he too had thought he

had a calling to the priesthood, but his mother didn’t want him to go ahead. In

his case, he used teenage rebellion and told her it was his life, and later went to

train for the priesthood, and was ordained.

Putting together the themes of counting the cost and serving God above

everyone else, a priest who is now deceased said that, shortly before ordination,

he went to see the rector, the priest in charge of priestly training at the

seminary. The rector asked him whilst they were speaking, “And have you

thought about celibacy?” The future priest replied: “I’ve thought of nothing

else”. God was calling him and he responded. The Lord knew what He was

doing in choosing him.

Following the Lord does involve recognising that there will be a cost, a cross to

carry, and the need to oppose those who try to obstruct you. In the second

reading, we hear mention of someone called Onesimus, who has an interesting

story.

St Paul’s Letter to Philemon is the shortest of all of his writings, being just one

chapter and twenty-five verses long. Onesimus was the slave of Philemon, but

he had run away from Philemon, having caused him considerable damage.

Onesimus had managed to visit St Paul in prison, perhaps knowing how highly

his master thought of him. St Paul managed to find a refuge for Onesimus, and

also to convert him to Christianity, but then he discovered he was a slave

owned by Philemon. So in the Letter to Philemon he now vouches for him,

how useful he has been, and encourages Philemon to welcome him back, not to

punish him, and to see him as a brother in the Lord. St Paul also offers to pay

for the damage Onesimus caused his master. God had used the original

incident, whatever it was, to lead Onesimus to faith, friendship with St Paul, to

be reconciled with him master, and maybe even to be later on freed from

slavery. It’s a bit like St Josephine Bakhita, who was sold into slavery in

Africa, and later taken to Italy, where she was then set free, found Christ and

became a nun.

There’s the expression that God writes straight with crooked lines – He uses the

problems, difficulties and trials in life and brings something good out of them.

In a slightly more secular example, I watched recently a four-part documentary

on the 7/7 bombings in London. One of the survivors, who lost both her legs,

said that, a year on, if she had been asked, she would have wanted to go back in

time and stop herself getting on the Underground. But years later, she now

thinks that it was meant to be. As a result of what happened, she found her

future husband and took part in the Paralympics.

We never know what God has in store for us. It’s not always going to be easy.

Sometimes it might absolutely wonderful. But whatever happens, God has a

plan, and it will require some commitment.

Curious about exploring things further?  If you would like to ask further questions about the topics raised in these homilies (or maybe think it wasn’t explained too well!), please feel free to e-mail Fr Michael at stjoseph.thame@rcaob.org.uk