Leaving behind to make God first, Homily 13th Sunday Ordinary Time, Cycle C

He was a young man who was the life of the party.    Everyone loved being around him. He was a leader of a group called the “Merrymakers”. As the son of a wealthy businessman from an upper middle-class family, he had the means to buy the best wines for he and his friends to frolic late into the night. After getting bored with all the partying after a few, his interest turned to great military adventures, to win battles against the foes threatening his country. This adventure didn’t turn out as he planned and resulted in imprisonment, sickness, and disillusionment.   He had a dream that led him to follow a new way of life, to serve the “great King”.  It was an encounter in least unexpected way that would lead him to the King he was seeking.

Elisha today has an unexpected encounter with the prophet Elijah.  Elijah was a great prophet to the Kings of Judah leading them to follow the true God. He heard from the Lord that

he was to anoint Elisha to succeed him. Elisha was most likely from a wealthy family as he was in the field plowing a field with twelve oxen. He was probably content, living well, going about his family business when Elijah comes over and places his cloak on him. This action signified Elijah’s passing on his role as God’s prophet to the younger Elisha. 

Elijah was well known as the prophet of God in the community, and this probably caught Elisha off guard that he was being called to serve God. His response was to leave his oxen, his family livelihood, which showed his willingness to serve God, but he wanted to say goodbye to his family. The prophet Elijah rebukes him. Elisha then commits to serving God by slaughtering the oxen and burning yokes as fuel to cook them for a feast for the people. Elisha left behind his old way of life, so he could serve God as Elijah’s attendant, and eventually becoming his successor.  Sometimes God calls us when we least expect it. When that call comes, will we be ready to leave behind what keeps us from making God first priority in our life?

Elisha’s call elicited a total commitment to serve God.   He gave up everything, his livelihood and family, to follow the call of Elisha This is a great example of putting God first above everything else in his life. Are we called to do the same?

As Christians we are called to live as disciples of Jesus. We are empowered to do so by the grace of our Baptism where we first became adopted children of God and received the gift of the Holy Spirit. Through Confirmation we received the fullness of the Holy Spirit. These two sacraments provide the grace giving us freedom to live as Jesus Disciples by loving your neighbor as yourself.  We know how hard it can be to love our neighbor, who many times are not that loving to us.

Especially when they cut us off while driving on the freeway, gossip about us to hurt our reputation, or cheat their way into getting a promotion.

They are acting in ways of the culture, putting me first, rather than thinking about others. When these things happen, we may want to respond in anger, to get back at them. But as Christian disciples we are called to love rather than to retaliate, and the Holy Spirit make it possible to be loving. 

To live as Jesus’ disciples showing love for our neighbor, we need to listen to the call like Elisha did to make God first priority in our life.   We do this by leaving behind the things in our lives that keep us from following God first in our life.  What are the things that hinder us from doing so? The culture we live in pushes us to prioritize things over a relationship with God. Our time is consumed by entertainment and pleasure, so we don’t have time to pray. We’re enticed to want things that are bigger, better, and newer so we’re consumed to buy more things, and we’re never satisfied. We may be bored in our relationships, so we see out others to make life more interesting. But all of these things take us away from our top priority, a relationship with God. What are the things in our lives that we can leave behind, so we can hear the call of God?

Returning to the story of the young man, he was traveling across town to visit his friends and was contemplating his life with the King. He took the long way around the leper hospital to encountering them, for fear of catching the disease.

The young man was particularly repulsed by lepers and avoided them at all costs. 

The horse the young man rode suddenly veered off the path, and there a few steps before him appeared a leper.  The young man was horrified at first, but something came over him. He sprang from his horse, placed the alms he was carrying in the leper’s hand, and kissed his hand.  When he got back on the horse to ride away, he was filled with excitement. The young man was St. Francis who had encountered the Lord his King, in the leper. He did so by showing love to his neighbor, as Christ’s disciple.

Both Elisha and St. Francis left behind things so they could put God first in their lives. Pray to be open to hear the call of God and make him first in your life to live as a Disciple of Jesus, loving God and neighbor.