The Cost of Discipleship

“ Unless you take up your cross and follow me you cannot be my disciple” I remember a few years ago I was in hospital and the chaplain came to see me. While we were talking about this and that he said to me well this pacemaker that you are about to have is your cross that Jesus has decided to give you. I could have metaphorically swung at him. This I thought after the chaplain had gone was a complete mis interpretation of the passage we have just heard in the Gospel. It is not a bad knee a bad back a stomach ache or anything to do with that the clue to the whole sentence is in the last word. “ Disciple” We are called to be disciples of Jesus Christ we are called to follow him to give up worldly processions and attractions and follow him. To follow Jesus means that we may have to suffer that we may have to deny things in order to follow him.

In a homily some years ago Pope Francis warned that Christians run the risk of becoming "lukewarm" where we become "Christians in appearance" but we fail to conduct ourselves as Christians. Such people are "pagans painted over with two brush strokes of Christianity, so they look like Christians, but are really pagans.” We are sometimes like this. We take what we want what fits comfortably but leave all the difficult bits behind. We are like what I like to call Supermarket Catholics. We look at whats on offer and take what we like.Anything that challenges us we leave by the side we forget that its actually there. To be a disciple means that we are constantly challenged everyday to be true and authentic followers of Jesus.  I think what I am trying to say is that if I only go to Mass on Sundays but it does not make a blind bit of difference to the rest of my life then we are not being true disciples of Jesus. We are if you like devotional Christians. 

But Jesus is asking for a religion of Commitment where we give our whole lives to his service. This means that we have to pick up our cross a metaphor for sacrifice to be completely committed to something means to have a fire of love for something. It comes from inside out it is joyful and worth celebrating. Many times I have witnessed people who have made that radical choice to follow the Lord who have finally discovered what it means to be a Christian to follow the Lord with our full hearts and minds. They have a fire within themselves and it is beautiful to watch they are attractive and fantastic to be around. I have seen it over this Summer in the hospital when you take our lord to the patients, at celebrate in people coming to the sacrament of reconciliation in the alpha course here where people have discovered that fire within. They realised that the cross is something to embrace that you don't get to be a disciple without sacrifice and losing the ego and being filled with his all encompassing love. But we get stuck and I have noticed it myself I call it comfortable religion old filmiliar or as some call it devotional faith. Our Christian discipleship goes as far as we are comfortable anything that challenges this is naturally we think wrong. Or as I would say: not for me.  Imagine if we just lost our egos and followed Jesus if we were able to break the chains of our prejudice and fear and follow. Let us today this Mass recommit to Jesus be true disciples of him to leave our comfortable devotional religion behind and leave our egos in a box and pick up our crosses joyfully and follow and be a true disciple. 

So I challenge you this day to be a disciple of Jesus. To follow him to take the challenge and come to Alpha next time around to give your selves totally to serving the Lord and be a disciple and experience the joy of the challenge.