Runaway. Domination. Danger. Defeat (2019-09-08, Sunday-23)

• 2019 September 8 •  23^rd  Sunday

• Wisdom 9:13-18 b • Psalm 90 • Philemon 9-12, 10-17  •  Luke 14:25-33 •           

Title:    Runaway. Domination. Danger. Defeat

[_01_]    Renunciation… renunciation with an R-as-in-Robert is a theme of this Gospel. “Renouncing or giving up our possessions.”

          Jesus uses a powerful word to define “renunciation”.

          The word = “hate”. H-A-T-E.

          We teach our children not to say it, not to express themselves this way. It is a word we teach our children and others not to say, not to act on.

          We ask them to apologize if they say that word and they may be corrected/penalized if they say that word.

          And, we are called not to say it, to avoid that word: HATE.

          But, Jesus is saying it differently than we often do. It goes back to RENUNCIATION, to renouncing or giving up and that we are called to prefer God, to prefer God to all things

          … so that our love of God is going to help us to love our mother, our love of God is going to help us to love our love our brother or sister, our love of God is going to help us to to love our spouse and children.

          Our love of God is even going to help us to “love” or exercise proper stewardship and care over our possessions in the right way.

          So … RENUNCIATION.

          [*** pause *** ]

[_02_]    Did you ever want to run away? Did you ever just want to run away ?

          There is a runaway in the New Testament letter of Paul to Philemon. He is a runaway slave.

          And, there can be good reasons to run away, I’d like to discuss them, we might run away from … DOMINATION (“being dominated”), ___ run away from DANGER,  &  ____ run away from DEFEAT (“being defeated”)

[_03_]    St. Paul encountered a person who is running away from domination.

This is Onesimus, a slave. Paul is in jail, in prison, But along the way, Paul had met this runaway slave “Onesimus”, a  slave who belonged to a man named Philemon.

 Onesimus had gone, as we say, “off the reservation”. Onesimus had run away but along the way, Onesimus – in the company of St. Paul had become educated, had been baptized and had been assisting Paul in the ministry.

Paul was insisting that Onesimus go back to his home and even go back to Philemon. But, on different terms. Paul is asking hat Philemon take Onesimus back not as a slave but as a brother, as an equal.

It foreshadows something that will come in next Sunday’s Gospel: The Prodigal Son.

The Prodigal Son says. [Father take me back and treat me as you would one of your hired hands, servants / i.e., a slave ! ]  (cf. Luke 15).  But the Father takes him back as a son and friend.

          Jesus wants to be free from domination and being dominated and also from the desire to dominate others.

Paul is telling us that we are free because we can follow the Gospel. Freedom is not the same as autonomy or doing whatever we want. That’s not freedom …  that’s really a form of slavery to my own desires. For example, coming to confession, to confess ours we admit our need to be free from…freedom from being dominated by selfishness or sin.

Run away from domination. That’s freedom !

[_04_]    2^nd Second part. Freedom from danger or running from DANGER.

          There are times when absolutely necessary run away from DANGER.     

          On Tuesday 9/11/2001, thousands and thousands of people were running away from danger in lower Manhattan and beyond. On that morning, no one in my immediate family was anywhere near the World Trade Center, but both my mom and brother were in N.Y. City, in midtown Manhattan. They met up and started to go uptown, north uptown to the 178^th Street and buses across the George Washington Bridge.

          And, along the way they met someone else, another N.J. resident who was also walking really fast if not running away.

          So, they went to Fort Lee and Englewood, and piled into my dad’s car and went home, drove out the suburbs.

          Sometimes, we have to runaway from DANGER together. We need help to get away from danger.

          It was not an extraordinary act of generosity on 9/11/2001 to give this person a ride home. That’s just what you did that day and beyond.

          Thousands and thousands of people were doing that.

          So  FREEDOM DOMINATION …and FREEDOM from DANGER.

          Now I’d like to touch on FREEDOM from DEFEAT.

[_05_]       From DEFEAT.

One of the best things that can happen to a team or player is to build up a big lead, maybe in the early innings, or the first half. Score runs, points, get a big lead.

          Then, you can run away with the game. You can run and hide, take a rest, if you have a big lead.

          And, in Major League baseball, it helps for example for the NY Yankees in the Bronx to get a lead a big lead “offensively”…. Because their “pitching”/defensively is often suspect.  Get a lead. Run away. Freedom from defeat.

[_06_]       Our freedom is not based only on our ability to get a big lead, but simply on our understanding on what is truly good. Then, to do it, carry it out.

          Not to be defeated.

          Sometimes, I have had, we may all have had a “defeatist” attitude.

          Have you ever been accused of having a defeatist attitude? I have been accused of having a defeatist attitude.

          So, we want to be free from a defeatist attitude.

          What does this mean?

          For Onesimus – the former slave – is being taught, being instructed that …

          “You, Onesimus, can do good not because you are slave, but because you are free..”

          Now, when we are young, when are children we may have a hard time getting this through our thick heads.

          In other words, following the rules is a form of freedom.

          But, this is what Paul wants to teach Onesimus, that following the Commandments … is a way for you to love unconditionally, not just because some earthly master (or boss) is going to be nice to you.

          It shows that we are free from being dominated.

         

           A strong team or player shows freedom by running away from defeat.

         

          We learn that our freedom is in doing good and the more we do good, the better we get at it. (CCC 1731, 1732, 1733…)

          And, we become more free.

          Doing good, we are free from DEFEAT, and we can become virtuous and good without thinking about it too much, kind of like getting a big lead on your opponent…

          That’s freedom from defeat, from discouragement.

[_07_]    This is true in any technical or artistic or musical sense or endeavor. The great technicians, or painters or musicians can do so much without looking at the page or without looking at their notes.

          That’s freedom. And, it is true in a moral sense that we want to do what’s good even without looking at our notes too much.

          Many years ago, I got something in my eye…on the surface of my eye. It was not too serious. But, I could not get this little object out of my eye. And a friend of mine had the same thing happen to him a few weeks earlier coincidentally.

          He had to go to an eye doctor. So I thought I better go to a doctor too (we run away from danger together).

          It wasn’t too bad, I could still see but I needed a professional to remove this little speck or whatever it was.

          So, I go. And, I recall that the first thing the doctor did in order to get close to me (hold hands up…) is he took out a book, like 4 inches thick volume.

          He says, don’t worry, I am not going to read the book, I’m just going to rest my forearm on the book.  Of course, he was not going to read the book. He knows what to do.

          That’s freedom. His goodness is within him, waiting to come out. And, we are called to be free in the same way, freedom from DEFEAT, … DANGER,  DOMINATION, so that we can follow Jesus’ command to all of us: take  up your cross and follow me.

[_fin_]