Readings: 1 Kings 19:16b, 19-21; Galatians 5:1, 13-18; Luke 9:51-62
I’m not favorably impressed by James and John’s reaction to the Samaritans but I have to hand it to them: before they act, they run their plan by Jesus and actually listen to him when he doesn’t approve. They’re willing to act as if he knows best.
Today’s Gospel strikes me as Jesus punching away at what we say to test whether it resembles how we actually live, how we react, what we’re going to do. Perhaps its the inevitable follow up to last week’s Gospel, the everyday version of the question, “But who do you say that I am?”
Jesus isn’t the Christ as an isolated specimen correctly labeled. Each day I have to respond as if I need a Christ in my life.
Who do I say he is by the way I live? Like James or John, do I need him as that point of reference that keeps my presumptions in check? Do I need him to disentangle myself from securities, from controlling my environment and everyone in it? Does he have to be there to shape the genuinely crucial relationships of my discipleship?
Or am I the only priority in my life?
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