8 August 2025 - Friday of the 18th week, odd year
Memorial of St. Dominic
H O M I L Y
All calls in the New Testament are individual and personal. Jesus does not issue general calls to anyone who wants to become His disciple. It is always a ‘Come, follow me!’ addressed to a specific person. However, here, immediately after the first announcement of his passion, Jesus lists some of the conditions that must be met by all those who are called and who wish to respond to this call.
It should be noted that among those who accompanied Jesus in his ministry, there were several categories of people. First there was the crowd, undoubtedly made up largely of curious onlookers, but also of sincere but shallow people, and a large number of sincere people who were open to his message. Beside this crowd were the disciples, those whom he had called to ‘walk behind him,’ to accompany him in all his missions. Among them were the twelve Apostles. And then there were also close friends who did not belong to any of these groups, but with whom Jesus liked to spend time during his travels, such as Martha, Mary and Lazarus.
Jesus is addressing here the disciples proper, that is, those whom he had called to follow Him and who desired to respond to that call. He reminds them that they must follow Him to the end; they must accept to carry their cross and therefore, possibly, to be crucified. But even though He calls them, Jesus leaves them all free. ‘If anyone wants...’ This “if” is very important. It expresses God's respect for human freedom.
We find an echo of this attitude of Christ in the Rule of St. Benedict, where Benedict asks that after reading the Rule three times to the novice, he be told each time: "Here is the Rule... if you can follow it... enter... otherwise, you are free to leave."
While Jesus respects human freedom, He nevertheless insists on instructing His disciples about the demands inherent to that freedom. One can renounce being a disciple to gain the universe... But what good is it to gain the universe if one loses one's soul?
Jesus constantly presents us with choices. He always leaves us completely free, but He also makes us aware of the concrete consequences of each of our choices.
Armand VEILLEUX