Fill the Earth with people and Heaven with Disciples of Jesus!
Homily preached Sunday, September 4, 2022
by Monsignor Michael Deering

At a high level, what is God’s Perfect Plan for the Human Race?

Well, it’s a two-part plan ... that is recorded right there in His Book, the Bible.

God didn’t waste any time revealing

the first part of His Perfect Plan for the Human Race ...

announcing it in the First Chapter of the First Book of the Bible!

In Genesis chap. 1, right after God created Man ... male and female ... in his image,

God blessed them saying: “Be fertile and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it.”

This was God’s first command to man!

And then ... in the fullness of time ...

     after Jesus had accomplished His great work of Redemption ...

and was ready to ascend to the Father and send His Holy Spirit into the world

     God revealed the second part of His Perfect Plan for the Human Race.

Recorded in the last chapter of all three Synoptic Gospels ...

Jesus addresses his Apostles as He ascends saying:

“Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations,

baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you.”

See how God’s first command  is profoundly connected with His last command!

His 1^st command given at the beginning of Genesis is:

Go and fill the earth with people.

His Last command given at the end of the synoptic Gospels is:

Go and make disciples of all the people!

God wants us to populate the earth with people ...

    and then make the people ... disciples of Jesus.

Why?    Why does God want us to do that?    Because God is Love ...

and His one desire is for us to experience the fullness of His love ...

      which we will only realize there in His Heavenly Home!

God, Who is Love, wants us to live with Him and share in His Love forever ...

which means that we must become  like Him in Love ... and

God has designed that we do that by becoming Disciples of His Son Jesus.

Yes, being Disciples of Jesus is the way we demonstrate and purify our love.

It’s the step we need to make to merit entry into God’s Eternal Love in Heaven.

We each took the first step in this process on the day of our Baptism.

That’s the day we became God’s children ...

     when the Father clothed us in His Son Jesus, and endowed with His Holy Spirit.

But Baptism is just the first step to becoming a disciple of Jesus Christ.

There are other steps that we must take to complete the process.

Today, Jesus describes 3 obstacles that will prevent us from becoming His Disciple.

First, He says, if we come to Him without hating our family and even our own life,

we cannot be His disciple.

Second, He says, if we do not carry our cross and come after Him,

we cannot be His disciple.

Third, He says, if we do not renounce all our possessions,

we cannot be His disciple.

Jesus notifies us of these obstacles because

He definitely wants us to persist and truly be His disciple.

Jesus would never set us up for failure.

And, He would never command us to do something that was impossible.

So how do we become His Disciples and how do we make disciples of others?

One thing’s for sure … we won’t accomplish it by following human wisdom.

Our only hope is to listen to God’s wisdom ... that He freely shares with us.

How appropriate that our First Reading today is from ... the Book of Wisdom.

We hear, “Who can know God’s counsel … or conceive what the Lord intends?”

For the writer admits, “the deliberations of mortals are timid …

and what is within our grasp we find with difficulty.”

And he concludes, we could never have known God’s counsel,

   “except (that He had) sent (His) Holy Spirit from on high.”

All who are baptized have the Holy Spirit dwelling in their soul.

That’s a wonderful and necessary step ... to have God’s Wisdom inside.

But there’s more!     We must use that wisdom to become Disciples of Christ.

Yes, the way we become disciples of Christ … is to listen to and use His counsel.

We can’t become disciples on our own limited human wisdom ...

 we must be guided by the wisdom of God … which is why it’s so important for us to hear the wisdom of God at least every 7 days here in Church.

Psalm 90 that we prayed today says,

“Teach us to number our days aright, that we may gain wisdom of heart.”

God’s wisdom tells us ... that nothing compares to being with Him in Heaven!

And therefore we should not let any attachment to this world

prevent us from getting to Heaven.

This includes attachments to family ... or to possessions ... or to pleasure.

Yes in order to be fully attached to God ...

 we need to be detached from everything else.

That’s what Jesus meant when He said “You shall love the Lord your God   (How?)

with all your heart, with  all your mind and with all your strength.”

This is not easy to do! Our human tendency is to build strong attachments

       to family and possessions and pleasure.

Jesus says … no … build strong attachments to Me!

And then He warns us that doing so ... will involve suffering.

Yes, becoming a Disciple of Christ is not without its challenges.

But the good news is that Jesus will always be there to help us along the way.

The Catholic Church admits that the Cross comes with Christ.

But the Church happily promises that Christ comes with the Cross!

They’re attached … which is why we always show Jesus on the Cross.

You get one … you get the other!

When you get Jesus - you get the cross.  But when you get the cross - you get Jesus!

Today, Jesus calls us to take up our Cross and follow Him.

How comforting it is to know that He comes with every cross.

He’s there to help us do what He wants us to do.

And what He wants us to do is not always easy or pleasurable.

Yes, being in God’s royal family can be very different from

           being in an earthly royal family.

For example, if you were born into the family of the King or Queen of England,

you’d be assured of a life of pampering and privilege.

You’d have it easy … you’d have it made.

But in Baptism, we’re born into the family of the King of Kings, Jesus Christ …

and that comes with a cross!

When we’re born again in Baptism … we’re born into God’s royal family,

and our life is destined to involve ... sacrifice and service.  

So, becoming a disciple of Jesus Christ does not mean ...

that our life on this earth will be all happiness and bliss.

Rather, Jesus warns us that following Him will involve taking up our cross.

We simply can’t be naive about what becoming a Christian will involve.

Living a Christian life means being counter-cultural to the world.

For example, it means upholding the sanctity of human life from conception to natural death … in a world that endorses exactly the opposite … such as:

 abortion, euthanasia, embryonic stem cell research, and the death penalty.

It means upholding the permanence of Marriage and the blessing of a big Family ... in a world that endorses exactly the opposite ... such as:

adultery, fornication, sterilization, contraception, gay unions and divorce. 

Actually, those of us trying to follow Christ will come up against countless areas daily ... where the world is calling us to act in direct opposition to the law of God.

This world tells us that the end justifies the means.     But that’s a lie!

There’s only one way to be a Disciple of Christ, and that’s to act in accord with God’s laws.           Recall Jesus’ last command before ascending:

“teach them to observe all that I have commanded you .”

Yes, there’s a Supreme Court in Washington, but the real Supreme Court is in Heaven

Sooner or later we’ll have to pay the price for transgressing the law of God.

I’m sure you’ve heard the little saying: “Pay me now or pay me later.”

That applies to every moral decision we make. Those who transgress the law of God aren’t eliminating suffering … they’re just deferring it to a later time!

The cross is part of our earthly journey. And Jesus doesn’t want us to be surprised when we encounter suffering as a result of trying to walk in His ways.

There’s just no getting around it ...

following Christ will involve sacrifice, suffering and maybe even persecution ..

as we heard in our 2^nd reading ... where  Paul is writing to Philemon from Prison.

Paul, the most zealous Disciple of Jesus, suffered … and so will we.

Choosing to follow Christ is not all fun and games.

There is a cost to Christian discipleship!

And that’s why the Catholic Church helps people to accurately assess the cost of Christian discipleship when they enter the RCIA process. For some 25 weeks, people who come to learn about the beliefs and practices of Catholics are advised of the requirements that go along with being Catholic … that they are expected to attend Mass every Sunday for the rest of their lives, regardless of where they travel.

That they must attend the Holy Days of Obligation, annual Confession and so on.

This is a very different approach from “the Altar Call” that is held in some other churches, where people are brought to an emotional high with powerful singing and preaching and then they’re asked to make an on-the-spot, life-long commitment to follow Jesus Christ!

How unfair to them to make a decision based purely on emotion,

without clearly understanding how they’re going to live that out … and how they’re

going to have to transform their lives to be a true disciple of Jesus Christ.

In our Gospel today, Jesus explains, “Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.”        Yes, the cross comes with

Christian discipleship. So people need to know exactly what they’re getting into.

This is why Jesus gave the two examples in today’s Gospel:

of the person wishing to construct a tower ... sitting down to calculate the cost.

and the king marching into battle sitting down to decide his chances of success.

Another place where the Catholic Church stresses the importance of

   clearly assessing the journey ahead is in the area of vocational discernment.

Men and women contemplating the Religious Life

typically spend 5 – 8 years in prayer and study, in order to get a close look at ...

all that will be required to live out their lives as a Priest or a Sister.

Similarly, couples seeking marriage will not find “Drive up” or “drive-through” weddings here! No, when couples approach the Catholic Church seeking marriage, the Church guides them through a 6-month Preparation Period that is meant to help them to consciously count the cost of making a lifelong commitment to a spouse and living out a Christian marriage in … total mutual self-giving love!

Above everything else, following Christ involves total dedication.

Jesus stresses just how radical this decision to follow Him is by pointing out in today’s Gospel that no attachment, even to one’s family can stand in the way of the commitment that we must have to Him. When He tells us to hate our nearest and dearest, he means that no love can compete with the love we must bear for Him.

For those of us who have journeyed in faith for a while, this is not a surprise … but it is a good reminder. Loving God and growing in intimacy with Him is going to involve an investment on our part.    Jesus wants us to know that up front.

Today, Jesus declares:

“Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.”

Notice Jesus says ... your cross, not His cross.

Jesus carried His cross and in doing so, He won for us the gift of our Salvation.

He wants us to be just as victorious in carrying our crosses too!

The crosses we bear can be of many types:

Health, Spouse, Children, Neighbors, Job, Boss, etc.

Oh, the number of people who are sick, the homebound, those in hospitals and nursing homes and rehabilitations centers or on longterm journeys of treatment.  

Or,

those whose relationship with their spouse has changed

those who have a strained relationship with their teenage children 

those who have an aggravating time with aging parents, especially Alzheimer’s

those who experience daily tension or abuse from a boss or co-worker.

those who have to put up with a nasty neighbor

What does it mean to be a disciple of Christ in those cases?

Perhaps that means biting our tongue instead of lashing back at your spouse

or your neighbor or someone at work who annoys you.

Perhaps it means offering extra patience and compassion to

your children who continue to stress you out

Perhaps is means leaving your place of work

to distance yourself from ungodly things.

Perhaps it means living austerely to provide for your growing family …

not driving the latest car … not having a lot of toys.

Yes, there’s a cost to Christian Discipleship … it comes ... with the cross.

But remember … every cross comes ... with Jesus Christ!

So, no matter what cross we’re asked to carry ... we know we can do it

because we have God’s Holy Spirit …

so, we have the supernatural wisdom and help of God!

Let’s strive to fulfill all of God’s commands, especially his last command,

to make ourselves and others … disciples of Jesus Christ …

so that we give glory to God on Earth

and accomplish His Perfect Plan

of being able to live in His Love forever in Heaven!

Amen!