23rd Sunday in ordinary time, Cycle C. Today’s readings: Wisdom 9:13-18b; Philemon 9-10, 12-17; Luke 14:25-33
Being an authentic person, that is, being true to oneself and to others, is not a common characteristic of our age; or of any age for all that matters.
Yet one man who embodied what can be considered as authenticity was Dietrich Bonhoeffer. This German Lutheran pastor and theologian was born on February 4, 1906, and was executed by the SS Black Guards on April 9, 1945, for opposing the Nazi regime.
Among his more notable works is his book The Cost of Discipleship. In it, one can catch a glimpse of what he believed it means to be a follower of Christ. Those who knew him could see that these were not empty words but were reflected in his life in an unadulterated way.
The Cost of Discipleship, by Dietrich Bonhoeffer.This is what made Bonhoeffer an authentic person. For him, being a Christian was not a passing fad but the very foundations that brought the different aspects of his life together, no matter how demanding this was.
Jesus is serious when in today’s gospel he speaks to the crowds gathering around him on how costly being his disciple was. As he continues his journey to Jerusalem, Jesus addresses his listeners in no unsure terms about what is required of the real disciple. Three times Jesus repeats the refrain “whoever does not… cannot be my disciple”. Being an authentic disciple of Christ is demanding.
Jesus had no interest in making it more challenging for people to be real disciples of his just for the fun of it. Discipleship is costly and there is no such thing as a half-hearted disciple. Jesus can sympathise with our weaknesses and our failings (Heb 4:15), but this is no excuse for lowering our standards or taking short cuts.
There is no such thing as a half-hearted disciple
By demanding us to “hate” our closest family members, Jesus relativises our loyalties and allegiencies, urging us to give first priority not to our blood bonds but to those forged by his blood on the cross. These bonds unite us with one another despite deep-seated differences that might exist between us.
Jesus offers two further parables to drive his point home. The first is of the man who sets out to build a tower but is unable to complete it due to insufficient funds. The second is of a warrior king who engages in a battle but fails to reckon whether he can secure a victory when his enemy has a battalion double the size as his. In both cases, these proud men boast about a project they are unable to see to its end. Might this be a tendency among us who take pride in being called disciples of Christ?
When Bonhoeffer wrote The Cost of Discipleship, he had in mind the freedom from the ideological and violent oppression of the Third Reich. He knew that this could only be achieved by “carrying one’s cross,” or as he put it, “submitting kindly to the yoke of Christ”.
Bonhoeffer indeed submitted himself to the yoke. Several times his friends had tried to smuggle him out of Germany, only to return to his fatherland. He understood that he could not be an authentic witness to Christ if he left alone his brothers and sisters who he knew were suffering at the whims of a dictator.
Being arrested, though never officially tried, threatened with torture and eventually held in a concentration camp until he was executed, Bonhoeffer never shirked the demands of discipleship to Christ. When in the concentration camps of Tegel and then in Berlin, he kept his friendly composure with all, including his prison guards, till the very end.
“Whenever God calls man, he bids him come and die,” wrote Bonhoeffer.
Such is the cost of discipleship. But its prize is joy.