Follow me
Today in the Gospel Jesus is passing by, walking with his apostles, like he always does, and he meets three different people that react differently according to the different demands Jesus places on them. It reminds us of ourselves, on how we react in the presence of Jesus in our lives. We too meet Jesus passing by daily, and we are confronted with different challenges that Jesus places in front of us, some of our own doing, others directly from him.
The first one is a young fellow, full of good desires: “I will follow wherever you go.” He is ready, if it is necessary, to follow him till the ends of the earth. Jesus tries to curb his desires, to remind him that to follow Jesus is not easy. It is a beautiful and attractive road, but full of obstacles and sometimes it is hard work. We need to keep our good desires alive. Holiness demands holy desires. Our Lord rewards our good intentions with his grace. The devil wants us to be convinced that we cannot become holy, that we should give up, sit down on the road and become cynical.
To the second man Jesus asks him to follow him. He tells Jesus to wait till his father was dead. Jesus answers him that there is no time for procrastination. Jesus passes by when he wants to and sometimes he doesn’t come back. We should follow God’s time. We are used to our own timetable, to plan our own lives thinking we are in control. We find it difficult to let him be the boss, to leave things in his hands. Nowadays when Jesus asks people to follow him, they normally answer with a question: My whole life? It is a pity. It is the best invitation for a great life and people turn him down.
The third one tells Jesus that he is going to follow him, but he wants first to say goodbye to his family, to leave everything under control. Jesus answers him that we cannot look back once we start following him. He puts the example of ploughing; when you start, you have to look straight ahead, otherwise the line becomes crooked. We cannot look both ways, ahead and back. We only have eyes on one side of our head. We need to keep going looking at the future, looking towards eternity. We need to trust God, leaving everything in his hands.
We don’t know what happened to the three amigos. The Gospel gives the impression that they just went away sad, like the rich young man. We don’t even know their names. They disappeared into oblivion. They are never mentioned again. When Jesus wants us to offer our lives to him, he uses this expression: follow me. What does it mean to follow Jesus? It means that your life is not about you, but about him. You cannot follow yourself. It is an action that demands someone else. If you try to follow yourself, most likely you’ll get lost. To follow Jesus involves three actions: get up, leave everything behind and accompany him. It is three decisions that create one momentum that is continuous: to stand up we need to leave what we are doing, and begin to run towards him. We cannot walk with him unless we unburden ourselves, unless we leave behind whatever enslaves us. Sometimes it is easy to stand up and throw away the old man, but it is not easy to keep up with God’s pace. It means to keep shedding the weight that slows us down.
josephpich@gmail.com
