Wednesday of 26th Week, uneven numbered year
“As they travelled along, they met a man on the road who said to him, ’I will follow you wherever you go. Jesus declared : ’Foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests but the Son of man has nowhere to lay his head.”
How do we follow Jesus, how can we walk after him, how can we be faithul to him, it is a serious matter and not one to be taken lightly. Jesus has described his own situation as a traveller without material security nor possessions of his own. He is wholly dependant upon other people’s solidarity. Jesus warns this man who asks to follow him that that he too will have to give upis material security,his comfort; his certitudes.The path with Jesus is one that never ends. To walk with Jesus means to always be ready to go one step , alwaysep going evne if we ho give up what we’ve gathered. The word’insecurity’ is frightening and and is used to put up barriers between ourselves. Insecurity, sickness, natural catastrophes have us seek at any price a safe place! Jesus’ rest place is the Father’s bosom, in his Holy Will. Jesus leads us along for us to live from his life. When in Incarnation, he takes on our human flesh, he espoused this humanity weaved from the flesh and blood of Mary his mother. He espouses our humanity in the most intimate parts so as to have it live from divine life. He finds rest when this divine work will be accomplished. It is ’the New covenant in his Body and Blood.’ Jesus leads us to the Father.We wish to place in our memories this Immense Love which we celebrate in the Eucharist. We live it Jesus’ life, in faith and hope, it is the reality of an immense love.
“Jesus said to another : ’Follow me.” and this man replied ’Let me first go and bury my father.’ But Jesus answered, ’Leave the dead to bury their dead ; your duty is to go and spread teh news of the kingdom of God."
The dead are those who no longer hear the call from God! To follow Jesus is to make a choice between life and death, to get going and to announce God’s kingdom, it is to leave oneself all the powers of death that are within us and around us, to bank on life, keeping confidence. At each Eucharist, we bring along with it our own life and that of humanity, with the living and the dead. Jesus takes this offering in his Heart of God and we go off again with the ’light load’of his Infinite Love. With the bread and wine, we place on the alter all that makes up our lives, and we leave renewed by the Infinite Love of God that
dwells within us. He becomes our resting place! Every time we participate in the communion of his flesh and Blood, our flesh lives from God. We ask for the grace to live the Eucharist fully : ’This is my Body, this is my Blood delivered up for you.“To follow Jesus means to follow Him where the encounter with another presents risks and asks that we overcome fears and predjudices.It also means to follow him here, even though it might not feel very safe.”Another said, ’I will follow you, Lord, but first let me say good-bye to my people at home.’ Jesus said to him, ’Once the hand is laid on the plough, no one who looks back is fit for the kingdom of God."
After a bereavement or trial, our life doesn’t end there and mustn’t reamain a prisonner of the past. Following Jesus can again open us up, have us find a meaning once more. Jesus can give back a meaning in life to all those who have lost it. Jesus’example shows us not to look behind us, he is the one who looks at what he does, and is careful at what he’s doing. To follow Jesus and to work with him at announcing God’s Kingdom requires an unfailing attention and commitment .Jesus doesn’t leave us by ourselves, he accompanies us day after day on this path that we can go along with Him.We ask for the grace that our life can be lived in a new Love, similar to that of Mary, in her reception of Jesus, her heart and the whole of her being were changed by it! We are well aware of our huge misery,of dark places within us, it is by having Faith in Jesus that we find life in God once more so that our human life can be lived out in a divine manner.Mary had lived this divilne life which was proposed to her. Her heart is animated in a divine way by Jesus, He is her Divine Life. God’s Infinite Love dwells within it. A new life is proposed to us, so that we may be at Jesus’ business, at the Father’s business.