(readings)
We can all say
that we are believers. Not all can say they are disciples.
I have been
considering this for some time, because, I see many believers in Church. I see many who profess belief in Christ on the
street.
I don’t see many
disciples in the world. Because being a disciple is about living what you
believe. You can be a sinner, the church is for sinners. You can be lost, the
church is for the lost.
You cannot be
a hypocrite. A hypocrite is one who professes they are a Christian but does not
try to live a life as Jesus instructed us.
It is easy to
become a hypocrite because people believe in many things. People believe in God. People believe in
Jesus Christ. People believe in the Devil. People believe in all the things
that are of this world. People believe false prophets, false teachers, false
doctrines, or they believe in nothing.
A person can believe
in God but be a disciple of the evil one. A person can believe in Jesus Christ,
but be a disciple of this world. A person can believe and be a disciple of
nothing.
Being a
disciple of Christ is much more than just believing. Being his disciple is following the
instruction and participating in all Jesus gave us; the beatitudes, the
greatest commandment, the Eucharist, and the sacraments.
In the
scripture immediately before today’s gospel Jesus went to the mountain and spent
the whole night in prayer to God. When day came, he called his disciples to
himself, and chose Twelve to be named apostles.
Then he went
down from the mountain and gave the most important and influential sermon of all times, that is today’s Gospel.
The Sermon on the Mount was a teaching
for all to hear, but it was instructions Jesus was specifically giving to
his disciples. Jesus raised his eyes toward his disciples said:
“Blessed are you who are poor; the hungry, and those who mourn; Blessed are you
when people hate you, exclude and insult you, and denounce your name as evil on
account of the Son of Man.”
Jesus instructed
them further by warning ones that followed him that being a disciple is not about
riches or power or celebrity.
“Woe
to you who are rich for you have received your consolation. Woe to you who are
filled now for you will be hungry. Woe to you who laugh now, for you will
grieve and weep. Woe to you when all speak well of you for their ancestors
treated the false prophets in this way.”
The prophet
Jeremiah warned, “Cursed
is the one who trusts in human beings, who seeks his strength in flesh, whose
heart turns away from the LORD.”
And the Psalms tell us: Blessed the man who follows not the counsel
of the wicked, nor walks in the way of sinners, nor sits in the company of the
insolent, but delights in the law of the LORD.
Being a disciple
of Jesus is more than just believing, it’s imitating Christ in the world; by
living the beatitudes. It is living the greatest commandment to follow in Jesus’
footsteps. Being a disciple of Christ is to love God with all that you are and to
love your neighbor.
It is to love
in a way that allows you die to the greed and avarice of this world and its
false prophets and disciples so you can rise up to bring Christ to the world.
Being a
disciple is more than just believing, it’s living the instruction Jesus gave. It
is participating in the Eucharist and the sacraments. It is to believe in the real presence, the
real body and blood of Christ in the Eucharist.
Being a
disciple is to participate and believe in the sacraments. They are the same sacraments
given to the apostles and the Church by Jesus.
It is through them that we the Church of Jesus disciples continue to
participate in his life.
Being a disciple
is following the instruction Jesus gave.
After Jesus rose
from the tomb, the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which
Jesus had ordered them. When they saw him, they worshiped, but they doubted.
Then Jesus
approached and said to them, “All power in heaven and on earth has been given
to me. Go and make disciples of all
nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy
Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, until the
end of the age.”
Disciples,
Jesus is looking at us.
So be good, be
holy and preach the gospel by the way you live and love one another. Amen.
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