Twenty-Third Sunday of Ordinary Time
September 5, 2004


Have you ever written a blank check in your life? (and signed it?)

I had a conversation with a young man from Truman University, who had worked at Christian Family Camp a few years ago. He related what happened at the end of the first week at the closing liturgy. “I came to realize that the only desire of my heart and the only thing that would make me truly happy was to give my life over to Jesus for him to use it however he saw fit. And that was wonderful and terrifying in the same moment. Because I have no idea what it will be or what it will cost me. But I know I have to follow Jesus in that way….” And it struck me that he had written his blank check. He had done precisely what Jesus invited his disciples to in today’s gospel. He had given to God his blank check –that of his very life.

How do you hear those radical demands Jesus gives us in today’s gospel? For my tendency is to want to water them down. Jesus is using hyperbole. He really doesn’t mean “hate your family.” He couldn’t be asking me to sell all my possessions. It would be such a stretch to take up my cross and follow him. And maybe he is speaking in metaphorical language. But metaphor/hyperbole or not, the result is the same. He asks from each of us a blank check, an unconditional consecration to him, which is an unswerving devotion to his Father. You must pick up your cross daily and follow me. You must sell all that gets in the way. You must leave behind all those attachments that keep you bound. BOOM. THAT’S IT. NO MORE QUESTIONS. END OF STORY. Because, only devotion to his Father and His Father’s will have an ABSOLUTE VALUE for Jesus.

To be his disciple is to be as devoted to him as he is to the Father, to whom he draws us. There is no other way. These are hard sayings. You can’t get around this. You can’t explain these away. If you want to be my disciple you MUST (divine imperative here) take up your cross.

Luke’s gospel has been alternating between the demands of the gospel and the experience of God’s consolation. What will it cost to be a follower and what can you expect from it. Today we hear of the cost side of that equation. Like a man wanting to build a tower or go to war – do you have what it takes. For it will take nothing less than a blank check written with all you are.

Tonight – we’ll have to opportunity to work on writing that check with our lives. Or at least to begin that process. For most of us, we don’t do it all at once – but in increments. Perhaps tonight you’ll work on who to make the check out to (This September is the month of volunteer opportunities here at Newman. Each Sunday, you’ll have a chance to listen to people asking for a piece of that check – your time volunteered to make a difference in the lives of others.). Or you realize you need to work on the signature. Or the desire. Or to find a pen. Or the checkbook. However you want to talk about that metaphor. Maybe it is to find the love. To ask for the love you’ll need to take up your cross.

Let me leave you with my favorite quote from a Jesuit, Fr. Pedro Urrupe. He says this:

Nothing is more practical than finding God.
That is, than falling in love in a quite absolute way.

What you are in love with,
what seizes your imagination
will affect everything.
It will decide what will
get you out of bed in the morning,
what you will do with your evenings ,
how you will spend your weekends,
what you read,
what you know that breaks your heart,
and what amazes you with joy and gratitude.
Fall in love, stay in love,
and it will decide everything.

Fall in love, stay in love, and it will decide everything…

homily