13th Sunday in Ordinary Time (A) – July 2, 2023

St. Paul – Lyons, KS

2 Kings 4:8-11, 14-16a; Psalm 89:2-3, 16-19; Romans 6:2-4, 8-11; Matthew 10:37-42

A Lesson from Ethan Hunt

So there’s this really famous movie franchise out there, you’ve probably heard of it, called Mission Impossible. Tom Cruise has been playing the fictional character Ethan Hunt since I was three years old (if it’s still making money, why stop, am I right?) But if you’ve never seen the films, Ethan Hunt is part of what’s called the IMF, the Impossible Missions Force. He is given a series of impossible missions (get it?), tasked with saving the world, preventing global disasters.

Spoiler alert. In the third movie, we discover that Ethan has retired from the IMF, he’s found the woman he’s going to marry—he’s getting out of the game, settling down. He still helps the IMF with training and consulting, but he’s out of the game, just settling down. But this is when a new mission comes up, and he’s forced to choose: life on the sideline, settling down, normal citizen, or re-engaging these impossible missions, saving the world, going on the adventure of a lifetime. 

And so what does he do? He does what anyone would try to do: he tries to choose both. He says, “Yeah, I’ll do this one mission, then I’ll come back and live my normal life again.” He tries to live both! And what happens? Well (predictably), in the course of him trying to accomplish this mission, they capture his wife, hold her hostage, use her to control and manipulate him. Now, of course, at the end of the movie he accomplishes the mission and rescues his wife (hooray). But he learns a valuable lesson, and this is the point: in trying to hold onto both, he almost loses everything. And so he knows that he has to choose. He has to choose. 

And so in the next movie we discover that he has chosen to let her go—they fake her death so that she can remain safe, and so that he can wholeheartedly pursue these missions. He discovers that this path involves an incredible sacrifice. He discovers that he has to give everything to this mission, or risk losing everything.

We don’t make room for him, he has made room for us

The reason I bring up Mission Impossible is because the next movie comes out in ten days…no. Well, yes, it does. But no, that’s not why I bring it up. I bring it up because these are the movies that grab our attention, we love them, we admire this. Here is someone who makes incredible sacrifices for the sake of these impossible missions—he’s selfless, courageous, bold. This guy had a chance to live his life, do what he wants, have a good job, settle down with his wife, focus on whatever makes him happy. But he doesn’t. He gives his life for another, for the mission. And in those missions he finds his life! He knows that he has been made for this, born for this. And so he gives up his other plans, his other path, his other projects and relationships and desires—and he makes this the focus on his life. And that’s where he finds his life.

I’m going to say something then explain it. But I’ll just say it first: We don’t make room for Jesus in our life, he has made room for us in his.

When I talk to people about the faith, the responses I get tell me a lot about how they view the faith. Many see it as a wager, a bet: if I do these things, follow these rules, then one day I get to go to heaven when I die. Others see it as behavior modification: Jesus came to teach us how to stop being a bad person and how to be good person. Others see it is therapeutic: I go to church or pray because it helps me feel better. But all of these miss the point entirely. The faith is not behavior modification, or the cost of admission to heaven when we die. The faith isn’t us making room for “Jesus stuff” in our life. The faith isn’t saying, “Well, I have to take my kids to school, to practice, to Jesus stuff, and go get groceries.” What we’re doing here isn’t “making room for Jesus in our life.” Jesus has made room for us in his, in his life, in his mission. And he is inviting us into that. He is inviting us to follow him. Why? Because that is where we will find our life, our destiny, what we were born for.

The Cost: He must be all in all

But—what’s the but?—but, this involves a cost. There is a sacrifice. A cross to carry. A choice to make. Jesus is offering us a share in his life, divine life, the most incredible, amazing life; and in his mission, his mission of saving the world! But we have to choose. What does Jesus say in the Gospel? “Whoever does not take up his cross and follow after me is not worthy of me” (Mt. 10:38). In this section of the Gospel, chapter 10 of Matthew, Jesus has called the disciples (by name!) and has been forming them, preparing them. And here he gets to the crux of it: you have to make a choice. Your parents can’t be more important than him. Your children can’t be more important than him. Your plans for your life can’t be more important than him. He’s offering you a share in his life, his mission—are you going to take him up on that? Are you going to make the sacrifice necessary to follow him?

Now, that doesn’t mean you need to leave your wife, ditch your kids, stop talking to your parents, no. That’s not what I’m saying—at all. But there is a sacrifice. And that shouldn’t surprise us or make us mad! Because we do this all the time for other things! I mean, St. Paul uses the example of sports in his first letter to the Corinthians. He says, “Athletes deny themselves all sorts of this. They make huge sacrifices. Why? To win a crown that fades, to win an award that doesn’t last.” Again, think of how many hours a week you spent as a kid playing sports, or how many hours you spend now taking your kids to practices, games. Why? Because those are the sacrifices you have to make! We know this! We know that there are sacrifices we have to make. If we want to participate in sports, in that life, in those events—it involves sacrifices: time, time with family, time you could spend doing other things, money, energy.

It’s no different with the life Christ is offering us–the only difference is that it’s infinitely more worth it!  That’s what Paul says in that passage. He says, “Athletes make all of these sacrifices for a life, an experience that fades. We too make a sacrifice! But the sacrifice we make is for a life that will never fade, a share in a mission of eternal significance!” But the choice is ours. The life, that share in Jesus’ life is yours, if you choose.

The Two Paths

This past weekend I was at the Steubenville Youth Conference with a bunch of the kids from our parish—almost 4,000 kids at this conference down in Dallas. And it’s an incredible experience! It was an intense experience of living the faith. And even though the kids were anxious about going, they came back saying it was one of the best (if not the best) weekend of their life. Praise God! But now they have a choice: will they continue to pursue that, or will they go back to what they were doing before? On that weekend, God gave them a powerful experience of what it means to share in his life, his mission. But the choice is: “Will I continue to follow that?”

As a priest on these weekends, you pretty much spend your whole weekend hearing confessions. I heard close to 10 hours of confessions, kid after kid after kid. But what I would talk with a bunch of the kids about is just this. I would talk to them about how they needed to make a judgement, to compare the experience of that weekend with the experience they normally have, in particular the experience of their sin. There are these two paths given to us. One of these paths leaves us feeling alone, isolated, sad, unfulfilled. And this is the path of me, myself, and I; the path of pride, of sin; “you do you.” But there is this other path, a path that leads us to joy, to happiness, to fulfillment. And that’s the path of following Christ.

That weekend left the kids with an experience of what that path leads to, an experience of fullness, of happiness, of joy. That weekend was completely and totally centered on Christ, on following him, on giving up everything else in order to follow him. And how did they describe it? “One of the best experiences I have ever been a part of.” But now have to make the judgment: if following this path brings me such great joy, life, happiness—why would I go back to what wasn’t working? And then they have to choose: will I continue to follow, or not?

Your mission, should you choose to accept it…

That’s the question each one of us has to ask: why would we go back to what doesn’t work? We have to choose. Our temptation is going to be to try to have both—to avoid the choice, to avoid the sacrifice! But it doesn’t work that way. Jesus has made room for us in his life, but we have to choose to follow him, to take up our cross and follow after him. 

And why? Why would we do that? Because that’s where we’ll find our life, our happiness, our destiny. We’ll find the purpose for which we were made, that we were born for. Yes, there is a cost. Yes, there is a sacrifice. But our sacrifice is for a life that will never fade. Why? Because it is the life of Christ himself.

Jesus has made room for us in his life. But Jesus’ life involves sacrifice. Here on this altar, Jesus sacrifice becomes present. We share in his sacrifice. Jesus has made room for us in his life, asked us to share in his mission. Will we choose to accept that? Will we choose him over mother and father, sons and daughters? Will we take up our cross, make that sacrifice, and follow him? Maybe today when we say, “Amen,” that’s what our Amen can mean.