I Want It Now | September 28, 2016

September 28, 2016

There is a character in the movie Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory named Veruca Salt. She is a spoiled brat and has her dad wrapped around her miserable finger. What gets her voted off the island is her incessant demand, “Daddy, I want it and I want it now!” She was relentless, annoying, persistent, and because of her impatience and self entitled attitude she sits on the Good Egg/Bad Egg scale and is of course sent down into the depths of Wonka world, forever a bad egg. While Veruca Salt did NOT deserve to have it and to have it now, today’s gospel gives us some food for thought about the concept of choosing Christ right now, without hesitation, and without delay.

One of the people hanging out with Jesus and his entourage opens up the scene by saying, “I will follow you wherever you go.” Have you ever made a promise that you immediately regretted making, like uh oh, what did I just get myself into? I’m sure Jesus chuckled at this bold and ignorant statement. Oh really? Anywhere I go? Because I’m about to go touch some lepers, and hang out with a Samaritan woman at a well, or stand in front of an adulterer that is about to be stoned to death, or one lash for you and one lash for me at the scourging. Since Jesus has way more couth than I, he cleverly said, “Foxes have dens and birds of the sky have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to rest his head.” In other words, BAM, you are now homeless with me! (but in a much more poetic sounding way, of course).

So Jesus does a little poll of his own and starts pointing at individuals saying, “follow me.” Each one had some sort of excuse as to why they couldn’t do it right that minute. In my opinion, these were pretty legit excuses too: I have to bury my dead dad and I need to say goodbye to my wife and kids first. Raise your hand if you have ever made an excuse to delay an important decision. Jesus’ response is not to be taken as him being insensitive or rude, but rather that there is no time to spare in choosing to change your life and give it all to God. Now is the only option in uniting our hearts with Christ’s heart. HE WANTS US NOW. I totally get the sense of immediacy especially when I have an important prayer request. Yesterday, my doctor called to tell me that the pathology on the mass they removed from my nose was cancer free. I said why didn’t you just tell me tomorrow at my follow up appointment, and he said I thought you’d want to know sooner than later and I know you’ve been waiting for this news. Immediacy places higher value on something and following Christ is the most urgent commitment of all.

So make a decision right now to follow him wherever he goes, don’t look back because the past can be like quicksand that slowly engulfs us, don’t make excuses because Jesus wants us now.

Yesterday was my brother’s birthday and I gave him a sign that says, “Life is cray cray, but Jesus is the way way.” That sums it up, doesn’t it? Have a blessed day.

Reading 1 JB 9:1-12, 14-16

Job answered his friends and said:

I know well that it is so;
but how can a man be justified before God?
Should one wish to contend with him,
he could not answer him once in a thousand times.
God is wise in heart and mighty in strength;
who has withstood him and remained unscathed?

He removes the mountains before they know it;
he overturns them in his anger.
He shakes the earth out of its place,
and the pillars beneath it tremble.
He commands the sun, and it rises not;
he seals up the stars.

He alone stretches out the heavens
and treads upon the crests of the sea.
He made the Bear and Orion,
the Pleiades and the constellations of the south;
He does great things past finding out,
marvelous things beyond reckoning.

Should he come near me, I see him not;
should he pass by, I am not aware of him;
Should he seize me forcibly, who can say him nay?
Who can say to him, “What are you doing?”

How much less shall I give him any answer,
or choose out arguments against him!
Even though I were right, I could not answer him,
but should rather beg for what was due me.
If I appealed to him and he answered my call,
I could not believe that he would hearken to my words.

Responsorial Psalm PS 88:10BC-11, 12-13, 14-15

R. (3) Let my prayer come before you, Lord.
Daily I call upon you, O LORD;
to you I stretch out my hands.
Will you work wonders for the dead?
Will the shades arise to give you thanks?
R. Let my prayer come before you, Lord.
Do they declare your mercy in the grave,
your faithfulness among those who have perished?
Are your wonders made known in the darkness,
or your justice in the land of oblivion?
R. Let my prayer come before you, Lord.
But I, O LORD, cry out to you;
with my morning prayer I wait upon you.
Why, O LORD, do you reject me;
why hide from me your face?
R. Let my prayer come before you, Lord.

Alleluia PHIL 3:8-9

R. Alleluia, alleluia.
I consider all things so much rubbish
that I may gain Christ and be found in him.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.

GospelLK 9:57-62

As Jesus and his disciples were proceeding
on their journey, someone said to him,
“I will follow you wherever you go.”
Jesus answered him,
“Foxes have dens and birds of the sky have nests,
but the Son of Man has nowhere to rest his head.”
And to another he said, “Follow me.”
But he replied, “Lord, let me go first and bury my father.”
But he answered him, “Let the dead bury their dead.
But you, go and proclaim the Kingdom of God.”
And another said, “I will follow you, Lord,
but first let me say farewell to my family at home.”
Jesus answered him, “No one who sets a hand to the plow
and looks to what was left behind is fit for the Kingdom of God.”