1^st Kings 19:16b, 19-21 Galatians 5:1, 13-18 Luke 9:51-62

Continuing on from last Sunday’s second lesson, St. Paul announced what for him had been the principal practical consequence of the Paschal Mystery: “for freedom, Christ has set us free.” This freedom was multifaceted. It was freedom from the slavery to sin, freedom from the unjust burden of over-controlling law; freedom from idolatry; freedom even from cultural biases and burdens which manipulate and often kill (figuratively and literally). But, this freedom was not a license to do whatever one pleased; this freedom was responsible freedom. Such was and still is the freedom of the Spirit of God – edifying, loving, forgiving, reconciling, life-giving, prudent and risk-taking. It was the kind of freedom which could and did change even Saul, an accomplice in the execution of Stephen the proto-martyr, into Paul, the apostle and evangelist. His inspired exhortation was “do not use this freedom ... for the flesh ... rather ... love!” For Paul, “the flesh” was a term not about one’s physical body but rather about one’s ego, that interior repository of self-centered fears, insecurities, jealousies, thoughtlessness, i.e., everything contrary to thoughtful and wise loving-kindness. Jesus taught the same thing in Mark 7:14-23. Gospel freedom is from fear and it’s destructive friends; freedom is for love and all the virtues that fulfill Gospel life! Paul’s freedom is the Christian’s proper reply to God’s offer of Salvation, a genuine response to the Gospel announcement “Repent and believe!”

Today’s Gospel text and the first reading from 1^st Kings are riddle-like, provocative anecdotes about discipleship. Continuing on from last Sunday’s Gospel text, one thing discipleship is not is mere training to perform a repetitive task. Rather, discipleship demands on-going reflection and critical thinking on how one actively engages the Gospel message while living in the messiness through which life drags us. The reflective question is posed both to each of us separately and to all of us together who claim to be Gospel disciples, “How are we to be fit for the kingdom of God?” Take care not to over-simplify Jesus’ most commonly used metaphor for being in God’s real presence, i.e., the kingdom of God or kingdom of Heaven. Heaven is neither a geographical place nor a political society. The kingdom of God is the metaphor of choice by Jesus for the infinite, mysterious, generally indescribably Mysterious Divine Reality. Indeed, we mortals can only engage God in our inadequate, imaginative human terms. That means we can only find God (whatever that word means most fully) by engaging our lives in the responsible freedom of God’s power, i.e., the Holy Spirit. Again, merely following rules, customs or practices is generally recognized as insufficient for profound faith. If a Christian becomes a religious rule-follower or replaces the larger and healthier Gospel faith of the Church with superstitious practice (any form of religious extremism or blind institutional faith), then such a one has rejected Paul’s exhortation to embrace the Gospel message of Christ’s responsible freedom. The Second Vatican Ecumenical Council (1962-65) in the Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World (Gaudium et Spes) reinforced that very same Responsible Freedom in unmistakable terms. Genuine disciples (We) of Christ must not be single-issue voters or self-righteous ideologues. They (We) must engage and wrestle with all of life and all of the Gospel in ways thoughtful and courageous, intelligent and loving, and often in ways prophetic, i.e., ways that challenge customary and received cultural practice or “common sense.” The Gospel message is not a “common sense” message (“everybody knows that...”), but rather a “good sense” message. Remember the prime social Gospel principle, Culture incarnates Gospel while Gospel critiques Culture. This is arguably among the principal issues about which each good Christian in general and every good and intelligent Catholic in particular must be fully informed. To reiterate, “For freedom, Christ has set us free!”

The text from 1^st Kings is a text about one of the earlier prophets, in a most obscure time and occasion. How God called prophets was sometimes fairly clear (e.g., by use of an ecstatic vision) and at other times simply baffling. The call of Elisha was of the second type. He succeeded Elijah in a terribly harsh era, when the kingdoms of Israel and Judah were on parallel roads to failure. Elijah had earned a tremendous reputation as much for his miraculous deeds as for his message of repentance. Elisha had large sandals to fill. Even his behaviors upon being called – the desire to bid farewell to family and his sacrificial slaughter of his plowing team – leave us wondering, especially given Elijah’s reaction. The occasion of Elisha’s call was less than clear. Let us focus, rather, on Gospel discipleship. That is challenging enough for us.

The national secular festival of the United States of America’s Independence Day, July 4^th, is upon us. The independence, claimed and announced by Thomas Jefferson and his associates in 1776, was an extraordinary 18^th Century articulation of responsible Gospel freedom. He and the founders of the world’s first modern democratic republic risked life and treasure in publically rejecting monarchical absolutism and parliamentary impediments to participatory self-governance. They each signed their names to the declaration, sent a copy to the king, and even published the document with names included. It was one thing to sever the political bonds with the mother country. It was much more challenging to live, thrive and succeed on one’s own and to overcome the violent resistence the declaration brought about. In his letter to the Galatians, Paul exhorted those Christians to let go of the security of their customary religious practices and to accept for themselves personal and communal responsibility for how they followed Christ in a new, inclusive fellowship. He asked them to trust in Christ’s salvation, in God’s gracious love, and in the power of the Spirit to guide and preserve them. The same is asked of us today, both as responsible disciples and as responsible citizens! It is discouraging to watch and read about the rude, ignorant, angry and irrational words and behaviors of so many who claim to be good Americans, many of whom also claim to follow Christ’s Gospel. They generally come across as very fearful and act out their fears with irrational words and behaviors. Healthy Christians must be different from those. Their fear leads them to blame others; our Gospel embraces reality and works to make it truly loving, wise and strong through responsible freedom.

God bless America in her genuine Wisdom!