Welcome to all visitors, thanks for joining us to worship our God today. In case you are visiting, or weren't here last weekend of the Feast of Corpus Christi, I introduced a slight change to communion where there are two lines coming up at the same time to one communion minister. It's pretty self-explanatory, just alternate, it is faster.
The more challenging part of my “ask” last weekend, I'm noticing, is that when people receive communion on the hand, the first step should be from your hand to your mouth. People are very used to stepping immediately with their feet, but I believe it is more reverent to consume the body of Christ before moving, and this seems to be what the Church is asking as well, She instructs, “As soon as the communicant receives the host, he or she consumes the whole of it.” I know it might take some time to break our habits, just try to be conscious of it.
This weekend's readings talk about the difficulties of discipleship, primarily the notion of keeping our options open. We often try to keep our options open. When I quit my job for seminary, I knew that if it didn't work out, I could go right back to it, right back to Des Moines, and get my same job back.
This is often known as "having a parachute" but we saw clearly in our first reading that Elisha burned his parachute, he left no options open by slaughtering his oxen and burning his plow. This was his entire livelihood, but once he realized he was called by God to this new way of life, he abandoned all options and set his mind on a singular focus, following God.
In our Gospel we heard Jesus say, "Follow me." He is still saying that today, but true discipleship is difficult. So instead of going all in, we keep our options open. And I'm not saying quit your job and go to the seminary or the convent, it's often little ways.
Like we might want to go to Date Night tomorrow, but we don't commit and some other opportunity comes up and we jump at it instead. Or there is a Men’s group or a Bible study or a Movie series here, and it sounds good, but we don't go.
By the way, our plan is to show the Chosen series on Wednesday mornings in July and August for those people who couldn't make the evening showings we've had in the past. And that Men’s group that is starting this week is going to be excellent.
Or someone at work this week comes up to us and says, "You are Catholic, what do you think of this Roe versus Wade decision?" And rather than just supporting the Church’s position, we stay on the fence, and leave our options open until we find out which side they are on.
Being a disciple is difficult, because God will continue to ask more and more out of us. Our second reading really gets to the this when Paul says, "Brothers and sisters: For freedom Christ set us free; so stand firm and do not submit again to the yoke of slavery. For you were called for freedom, brothers and sisters. But do not use this freedom as an opportunity for the flesh; rather, serve one another through love."
It's about love you know? We've got this freedom, we've got all the options, but do we pick the most loving one, the ones that draw us deeper in love with God and with our neighbors? Or do we pick the more comfortable one, the less challenging, the one that will satisfy our flesh for the moment without thought of eternity? Love isn’t always what feels good. Love isn’t about making someone else feel good. Love is about choosing what is best for the other, and sometimes that’s hard and doesn’t feel very good.
God loves us, He wants us to be with Him for eternity. So He asks us to follow him, to return that love and grow in love at the same time. But we have to take the time to do that, to grow as disciples.
So ask yourself, what is holding me back from following Jesus more closely? What are the parachutes or yokes of oxen which hold us back, giving us other options that God is asking us to get rid of? Because to know that, and actually do that, is true freedom, which brings the fruits of joy and peace. Take that to prayer today and this week.
Jesus is still saying to us, "follow me" - how will we respond?