renew your wonders: 4 September 2022

In the same way,

anyone of you who does not renounce all his possessions

cannot be my disciple.

We should try to answer the question, 'In the same way as what?' The connection with the foregoing parables to the conclusion isn't entirely obvious. It would seem that the call to calculate the cost of the construction of a tower was precisely to ensure that we had enough resources, not to renounce what resources we had. The call to assess our troops before marching against the opposing king would seem to require that we be able to trust and make good use of our allies, father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, and our own life, rather than hating them.

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?

The tower we are called to build cannot be constructed out of our possessions. In counting the cost we are meant to think ahead to the goal and order our choices accordingly. We are not building a silo to store more earthly goods. Nor is this tower to be a vanity project of our pride, a tower of Babel to impress our friends and neighbors, and even, we hope, God himself. When we try to build towers like these we inevitable end is the discovery of the finitude of all such earthly projects. Even if we could put the last brick in place, such a tower would immediately begin to weather and disintegrate. Any upkeep we did perform would only delay the inevitable. In order to count the cost as Jesus would have us do we must first know what we are building.

According to the grace of God given to me, like a skilled master builder I laid a foundation, and someone else is building upon it. Let each one take care how he builds upon it. For no one can lay a foundation other than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ (see First Corinthians 3:10-11).

Christ is meant to be the foundation of what we build, as well as the blueprint. Seeing this clearly even at the early stages allows us to have wisdom for our own participation in the project. We are invited to build with our good works of gold, silver, and precious stones, things that will withstand even testing by fire on the final day. Do we have enough works to complete the work? We ought to realize here our own limitations and liabilities, that we can scarcely produce a good work on a good day when we are in a good mood and we feel inclined to do so. But if we build the tower on the foundation of Christ it will serve for us as a defense against too much trust in our own abilities. It will go up as a posture of readiness, an attitude of staying awake, by which we keep Christ himself first, and therefore have his own resources and riches with which to build.

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?

Whether ten thousand troops can oppose twenty thousand depends much on the troops. When we consider that we "do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places" (see Ephesians 6:12) we realize that our erstwhile allies, our family, friends, are humanly speaking, of little ability to assist. But if one of our allies is Saint Michael, another a Guardian Angel, for example, their effectiveness will have nothing to do with number. If our human family and friends are united in this same spiritual battle they too will become powerful allies able to provide genuine help. These troops will be the troops who assist us provided we are fighting on the right side of the battle, in the right army, under the right King. Jesus himself was opposed by so many during his earthly ministry. At times it appeared that the entire world was either against him or had abandoned him. His battle itself seemed to come to naught and end in failure against these forces. But that was mere appearance, for in the cross itself Jesus won a higher victory over the Devil, sin, and death itself, and was vindicated in his resurrection. When Jesus in today's Gospel called his followers to take up their own crosses he was inviting them to become participants in the same battle. They would need to recognize it as their chief priority. It couldn't be undertaken merely as hobby alongside other pursuits. Attempting to do it any other way would only leave us exposed and vulnerable, at the mercy of the limits of our own resources.

But if not, while he is still far away,

he will send a delegation to ask for peace terms.

While we ourselves still have time, while the King and judgment are still future realities, let us commit ourselves more and more to the only winning strategy: union with Christ himself in the power of his Holy Spirit. Haven't we attempts to build enough half-finished towers by now to be fed up with such efforts? And haven't we been overwhelmed often enough when we try to fight with our own strength and resources? Let us learn the lessons these failures offer and make a decisive commitment to the true King, to build on the only viable foundation.

Or who ever knew your counsel, except you had given wisdom

and sent your holy spirit from on high?

And thus were the paths of those on earth made straight.