GOSPEL REFLECTION, WEDNESDAY, 26TH WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME, 30 SEPTEMBER 2026, ST JEROME, PRIEST, DOCTOR OF THE CHURCH, MEMORIAL

Luke 9:57-62.  In verses 9:51,53 Jesus ‘set his face to go to Jerusalem.  He and the disciples are now on the long journey towards that goal.  In today’s brief gospel (vv. 57-62) reading Jesus, soon after they had set out on their journey, gives three strong sayings about discipleship.  We note that in Luke’s gospel careful attention is paid to where Jesus gives his teachings.  It is often that Jesus speaks ‘to the crowds,’  some of whom become converts and continue to follow him.   Sometimes he speaks more intimately to the Twelve, instructing them more closely in order to develop and strengthen their faith.  At other times he speaks to those who reject him, giving them parables of rejection and its consequences.  To each of these he speaks differently, and it is helpful for us to understand the differences.

In the first saying, a man in the crowd cries out that ‘I will follow you wherever you go!’  To him and the surrounding crowds Jesus points out that there are costs to becoming a disciple, possibly even a tough life.  ‘The Son of man has nowhere to lay his head,’ are you truly prepared to share my life?

Jesus called another to follow him, but the man protested that he had another pressing matter to deal with first (burying his dead father).  Jesus replied, ‘let the dead bury the dead, but as for you, go and proclaim the Kingdom of God!’  We do not know whether the man did so or not.  There are costs to a decision to follow Jesus.  Another in the crowd said that he would follow Jesus but that he too had matters to deal with first.  If we decide to follow Jesus do we make that a priority, or a second or third option?  He also said to the man, ‘no one who puts a hand to the plough and looks back is fit for the Kingdom of God!’  Again, Jesus has strong words for those who make only a half-hearted commitment, like another of Jesus’ sayings that ‘whoever is not with me is against me ….)  (Luke 11:23).  As so many Christian spiritual teachers through the ages have declared, to be a true disciple requires ‘ploughing a straight furrow,’ not constantly looking back with regret for other options in life, nor having constant fears for the future, but having a clear vision of what lies ahead.