And worry about the number
(Lk 14:25-33)
Jesus is concerned to see around him «many crowds» (v.25).
Unusual that a proposal for total gift and risk of the whole life - goods, relationships, prestige, hopes - can find oceanic consensus.
In fact, there are not a few who don’t know «where» He goes. Not to take power and share it to friends - along with the loot.
The Lord is worried (v.25) and must start teaching again. Having so many admirers is a strange thing for Who proposes to involve themselves and not give in to indifference.
Even today, the Lord challenges, and urges us; He stings.
For those who make the choice of gratuitous love, first disposition is the integration of affections, even "family members". Not - to make us give up living.
Circles can detach us from the boundless demands of a relationship between people who share great ideals across borders.
Feelings and bonds must be relocated; they must acquire a new light.
Nobody is so much hero that he can no longer think of himself and his own, but a perspective dimension takes over, in the experience of a Father who provides for creating more wise turns.
All the logics of common sense take on another meaning.
Even attachment to one’s own image and reputation: «take, lift, carry the arm of the Cross» [v.27: sense of the Greek verb].
It was the moment of the maximum loneliness and perception of failure.
Those who are agitated by opinion-around limit themselves, do not begin paths, do not rely on their own skills or even discover them; they do not learn to take the step of what happens, nor subvert what must be detested.
The contrast with the strong powers that demand the usual double-edged loyalty, is simply to be taken into account from the outset.
Third "commitment" (v.33). Excess goods serve only to build “Relationship”. This is the threshold of Happiness: it makes one similar to God.
Absurd deal, but a source of unconditional joy, which brings us much more than emotion. So we must open our eyes well.
Because in mission you do not live on adrenaline, but on convictions that reflect the intimate life and the fullness of being.
Pay attention: the one who puts his face on it must first meet and measure himself very deeply, because he goes as in war (vv.31-32).
This is no joke here: the gendarmes of the established clans are capable of anything, to continue to give themselves importance and occupy positions.
You pay in person. You don’t participate in a triumphal procession: rather, you are rejected.
But Faith sustains: it believes that the Lord does not exert abuses, nor does he want around him resigned witnesses.
His Dream supplants common sense - to make us wince of an unexpected specific ‘pondus’ that we find free in our hearts.
From now on there is no more downwards haggling: this is the new Tower (vv.28-30) to be built.
[23rd Sunday in O.T. (year C), September 7, 2025]
