God’s kingdom calls for dedication over everything else

A reflection on the daily readings, for the Memorial of St. Francis of Assisi, by Father Perry.

By Father Perry D. Leiker, pastor

+ This Book of Nehemiah is described as a historical book — not a prophetic book.

It is that theme of restoring Jerusalem after it had been destroyed and burned, and Nehemiah discovers within himself the call to go there and help in this reconstruction of Jerusalem.

His devotion to prayer, listening to his God, and complete dedication is evident, even as he demonstrates it before the king whose permission to go he seeks and receives.

Provided, also, with letters from the king to protect him and grant passage in his travels, Nehemiah sets out to retrieve the promise of God to restore Israel and call his people back to faithfulness.

Jesus, in today’s Gospel passage, once again remains faithful to his intent to get to Jerusalem where his fate will be lived out.

Along the way he encounters three people who declare that they want to follow Jesus, but each one utters an excuse for delay.

And to each, Jesus replies. And each reply is the same.

The time is now.

You cannot say you want to and will follow, then you don’t.

The kingdom of God is at hand. The kingdom of God is now.

The kingdom of God calls for complete and total dedication over everything else — family, culture, desires, friends, material wants.

Everything!

Typical Jesus. Hyperbole. Exaggeration. Not literal, but super expressed even to the point of almost being offensive, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.”

To which Jesus answers, “Let the dead bury the dead.”

Yikes!

But Jesus, indeed, makes the point. You could say that he bludgeons them with his point.

Luke’s passage does, however, evoke our spirit.

Almost like a sergeant pointedly asking for volunteers from his men to go out on a mission that may get them killed and in which he is asking for total commitment. They all shout back, “Yes, sir. I will go, even if I have to die!”

Yikes!

And this is the kind of language that Jesus uses as he proceeds forward toward Jerusalem, where he will die ignominiously on the cross.

Yikes!

And so in typical Gospel fashion, we are invited to look at our commitment and our desire to follow the Lord — to say “Yes, Lord. I will follow you now and always!”

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Father Perry Dean Leiker is the 13th pastor of St. Bernard Catholic Church. Reach him at (323) 255-6142. Email Father Perry at pleiker@stbernard-church.com.