5 Nov 2014 - both to desire and to work

We are called to ask whether our own resources enough to live as disciples.

Do we have enough to build a tower?

Which of you wishing to construct a tower
does not first sit down and calculate the cost
to see if there is enough for its completion? 

We need a tower that can connect earth and heaven. But no one has gone up to heaven except the one who is from heaven, Jesus Christ (cf. Joh. 13:3). Only he is the ladder on whom angels can ascend and descend (cf. Joh. 1:51). To build a tower that is up to the task of connecting earth and heaven only one thing suffices.

Are our troops sufficient to win the battle?

Or what king marching into battle would not first sit down
and decide whether with ten thousand troops
he can successfully oppose another king
advancing upon him with twenty thousand troops? 

Ten thousand troops against twenty? Probably not. It isn't just twenty thousand. The whole world is under the control of the evil one (cf. 1 Joh. 5:19). Jesus is the only one who overcomes the world (cf. Joh. 16:33). He attacks and overpowers the strong man and takes away his armor (cf. Luk. 11:22). He sees Satan fall like lightning from the sky (cf. Luk. 10:18). He alone drives out the ruler of this world (cf. Joh. 12:31).

Jesus at once builds a tower to connect earth and heaven and defeats the enemy army. The weapon of victory is the tower of the cross. This means that wife and children, brothers and sisters, and even our own lives are now seen clearly in proper perspective. These lives are some of the greatest goods we know. But ultimately they come to an end. They can't be held as absolute because they finally slip away from us no matter how hard we grasp. The only way to victory, the only way to heaven, is to lay down our own lives.

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

We must lay down our own resources.

everyone of you who does not renounce all his possessions
cannot be my disciple.”

The cross is clearly the work of Jesus. But even to desire it is his work.

For God is the one who, for his good purpose,
works in you both to desire and to work.

We naturally seek self-preservation. We want security and comfort. We don't want to lay our lives down. It is Jesus who inspires this desire in us.  As Saint John Paul the Great teaches:

“It is Jesus that you seek when you dream of happiness; He is waiting for you when nothing else you find satisfies you; He is the beauty to which you are so attracted; it is He who provoked you with that thirst for fullness that will not let you settle for compromise; it is He who urges you to shed the masks of a false life; it is He who reads in your heart your most genuine choices, the choices that others try to stifle.

And when we don't desire the cross it is Jesus who makes us want to desire it. When we think, 'I don't want that, but I wish I did', that is still Jesus at work. Let us open our hearts to him.

When we do, we "shine like lights in the world" among "a crooked and perverse generation". We are even able to rejoice and share our joy if we our poured out as a libation for others, just like Paul.

We come to trust in God completely.  What is left now to fear?

The LORD is my light and my salvation;
whom should I fear?
The LORD is my life’s refuge;
of whom should I be afraid?

Does the cross still look repulsive to us? Does it still seem a burden? Are we looking for the nearest opportunity to lay it down? Let us wait for the LORD. Even at such times he is at work within us, transforming us.

I believe that I shall see the bounty of the LORD
in the land of the living.
Wait for the LORD with courage;
be stouthearted, and wait for the LORD.

When we see crosses today, when we want to run, let us pray: "I will wait for you with courage, Jesus. I know that I'll see your bounty!"