23C Sunday Homily, Luke 14:25-33, September 7, 2025
By Fr. Vincent
Corbelli, MM
1) STORY
There was a
famous football player who always wore a gold medal with these four words: I AM
NUMBER THREE. When asked what the words meant, he said that in his life God is
number one, his family is number two, and he is number three. He always tried
to live his life with this motto in mind.
2) GOSPEL
A) Jesus tells us to become his follower, his disciple, we must be willing to leave our families though we continue to love them. We must be willing to leave them in order to follow Christ.
B) To follow Jesus,
we must be willing to carry our cross. This
means we must be willing to do difficult things for Jesus. “Whoever does not carry his own cross and come
after me cannot be my disciple.”
3) APPLICATION TO LIFE
A) For different reasons, many people leave their families. For example, when a couple marries, they will normally leave home. On finding a new job, a person may have to leave home. When a person becomes a priest, brother, or sister, they leave home. They love their family even though they must leave them. This is the same for the person who follows Jesus.
B) To carry one’s
cross means to be willing to do difficult things for Jesus, thereby imitating
him. We try to imitate Jesus with our
head, heart and hands. By learning more
and accepting his teachings to love God, neighbor and self, we imitate Jesus in
our heads. By seeing the good qualities
in others despite their short comings, we imitate Jesus in our hearts. By giving our time and effort to those in
need, we imitate Jesus with our hands.
4) CONCLUSION
Just as the
football player tried to make Jesus number one in his life, we must try to make
Jesus number one in our lives if we wish to be his disciple.
We do this by
imitating him in our head, heart and with our hands. The more effort we make in becoming disciples,
the more Jesus will bless us with his peace, joy and happiness.
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