Thirty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time
I just concluded the ten-week discipleship training seminar at the parish. Fourty-four people began this journey and fourty-two people completed it. The primary reading for this seminar was Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s book, The Cost of Discipleship. Bonhoeffer lived in Nazi Germany and was put to death in a concentration camp. This is very dense book to comprehend but his main contribution is the idea of ‘cheap grace’ and ‘costly grace.’ Cheap grace, according to Bonhoeffer is, “the preaching of forgiveness without repentance, baptism without church discipline, communion without confession. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate.” Costly grace is grace for which a price has to be paid. “It is the call of Jesus at which the disciples leaves his nets and follows him.” Costly grace is when the disciple realizes the price that has been paid for his or her redemption – the cross of Jesus Christ. Today’s readings are all about cheap and costly grace.
Let me provide the context for today’s readings. First, In 332 BC the Greeks conquered what we know today as the Holy Land. Around 167 BC, in an effort to unify the many different people under his rule, Antiochus IV Epiphanes imposed Greek language, customs, and religion on all of them including the Jews. The Jews were compelled to renounce Yahweh and eat pig’s meat – an abomination to the Jews. Today’s reading recounts the story of a mother and her seven sons who were martyred for their refusal to eat pork. This episode is a classic example of what Bonhoeffer would call ‘costly grace.’ The second reason for this story being included among the Sunday readings is the profession of faith made by one of the brothers. He said to the King, “You accursed fiend, you are depriving us of this present life, but the King of the world will raise us up to live again forever” (2 Mac 7:9). This is the first clear indication of belief in after-life in the Old Testament. Belief in the resurrection and after-life began to develop only about 150 years before Jesus at the time of the Maccabees. But the Sadducees, who believe only in Torah (the first five books of the OT), did not believe in the resurrection and after-life. That is why in today’s gospel, some Sadducees questioned Jesus (Lk 20:27). The hypothetical case of a woman who married seven brothers was meant to prove the futility of the belief in after life. Jesus answers the Sadducees by pointing out that the belief in life after death is actually found in the Pentateuch. That is why he says, “That the dead will rise even Moses made known in the passage about the bush, when he called out ‘Lord,’ the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob; and he is not God of the dead but of the living, for to him all are alive” (Lk 20:37-38). The last statement of today gospel reading becomes the most hopeful statement in all of scripture. The God we believe in, is a “God of the living and not of the dead and to him all are alive.”
Let me offer three practical implications for today:
1. Costly Grace. One of the regrets I have in life is that my faith has never been severely tested. Unlike the mother and her seven sons, my life has never been in danger, or I have never had to choose between my family and my faith. I wonder if faith would mean something different had it to be challenged in a serious way. The question that comes to my mind is – how were the persecuted mother and children able to endure such suffering and still stay faithful? I think the answer lies in the concept of cheap and costly grace. Let me explain. Both in the Jewish tradition and in Christianity martyrdom is the most profound act of worship. Worship, ideally, has two dimensions: worship God in God’s house and the ability to transform daily life into an act of worship. An ideal life is when there is no dichotomy between these two dimensions of worship. When our worship and life do not come together, it is called cheap grace. The persecuted mother and her sons give witness both to their faith in God and how this faith is connected to their life. They chose to offer their life as a sacrifice and as an act of worship before their God. This is costly grace. This mother and their sons challenge us today to make our lives an act of worship; to live out costly grace.
2. Living Martyrdom. Not all of us have the privilege of martyrdom. But each of us has privilege to the martyrdom of the living. The way we fashion our lives and our character is a kind of martyrdom. We admire the mother and her brothers for their sense of purpose in life, their courage in the midst of trial, and their willingness to die rather than compromise their faith. They were men and woman of character even before their martyrdom. When the time came, true to their character, they offered their exemplary life as an act of worship. What does this mean for us today? We can be living martyrs by fashioning our lives as a disciple of Jesus. A disciple is a disciple because he or she has an undeniably Christian character. Character is proven in the daily events of life. Truth-telling v/s an easy lie, honesty v/s cunning, pure mind v/s promiscuity and eroticism, reconciliation v/s resentment, kindness and gentleness v/s self-centered existence, limitless love v/s prejudice, sobriety v/s addictions – the list can be long. In the midst of the vagaries of life, a disciple must strive for costly grace. Thinking like Jesus, talking like Jesus and acting like Jesus is another form or martyrdom - an act of profound worship.
3. God of the Living. As we have figured out by now, today’s readings are not easy readings. However, the demands of discipleship are not meant to discourage us. I want to point to the tender side of God’s word. The readings tell us that no matter how life might turn out; no matter how much we suffer in fidelity to God, no matter how costly grace might be, on at the end of the road, there is a tender and loving God waiting for us. As Jesus says, our God is a “God of the living and not of the dead.” All our strife to live a life of integrity, honesty, love, peace, justice is not without a fruit. The harder our struggle and more sincere can be our life worship. The more intense our suffering the greater the chance to make our life an act of worship. The greater the struggle the stronger our chance to build a Christian character. Our radical and faithful discipleship is our surest way to God. God is with us now and at the end of our life.
As we gather around this altar, let us pray for two things. First, let us ask Christ to give us the courage to live out costly grace. Let our discipleship be uncompromising. Second, let us pray that is Eucharist and our life may both be an act of worship. Amen.
- Fr. Satish Joseph