01.10.25 Mengikuti Tuhan Tanpa Syarat

Wednesday 26th week in ordinary time "Lk 9:57-62" As they were going along the road, a man said to him, "I will follow you wherever you go"...To another he said, "Follow me." But he said, "Lord, let me first go and bury my father." But he said to him, "Leave the dead to bury their own dead; but as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God." Another said, "I will follow you, Lord; but let me first say farewell to those at my home." Jesus said to him, "No one who puts his hand to the plough and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God." Jesus was walking along the road. He was calling new disciples and some others were approaching Him and volunteering to follow Him too. But some wanted to follow Him only after first setting out their own conditions. It's as if they were trying to negotiate their vocation with God: 'I will follow You, Lord, but... not now, maybe later' or 'OK, but I have to study this degree', or 'live in this city' or 'have this job' or 'get married.' Our vocation is non-negotiable. A fiancé can't say to his beloved: 'OK. I'll marry you but only if I can still live in my parents' house.' God thought about my vocation for all eternity. He made me, exactly as I am, in order to fulfil my mission. I am still free to accept it or not, to say 'Yes' or 'No' to my vocation. But I can't take some parts from it like a child who discards the vegetables on his plate because he only likes the steak. We can always do other things with our life; even good things. But the best is always doing what I was meant to do. St Teresa of Calcutta is a good example of generosity. At the age of 18 she became a missionary. She entered the convent of the Sisters of Loreto in India and lived there happily for 18 years. But then God asked her to leave that life and start a new congregation to serve the poor and destitute. For a long time she experienced only difficulties, from the Loreto Sisters, the bishop, the authorities... She could easily have settled in her convent and left this new calling. Who would know that she was saying 'No' to God? She would still be a nun. No one could tell. No one but God and herself. But she was generous and left everything to follow God's Will and we can now see the fruit. Mary, my Mother, do not allow me to present God with conditions. Help me to say a definitive and generous 'Yes'.