Homily for Saturday of the Tenth Week of Ordinary Time, Cycle II

YEAR II First Reading: 1 Kgs 19:19–21
Responsorial Psalm: Ps 16:1b–2a and 5, 7–8, 9–10
YEARS I AND II Gospel: Mt 5:33–37

Seminarian Residence Chapel, Crowley, TX  

        About a year and a half into my seminary formation, I had to make a huge decision. All the professional certifications I had earned through the years while working in the IT industry were about to expire. I could either study for or take one test to keep all my certifications current or I could let them expire. If I let them expire and later left seminary formation, it would take many years and many hundreds of dollars to recertify to the level I was at. I decided that I would not continue seminary formation with a ‘Plan B’ – I was all-in. I let my all my certifications expire and I never looked back.

          In our reading today, Elisha was called by the Lord to become Elijah’s successor. God asked him to make a commitment, but he left the decision up to Elisha. He hesitated, not sure he was willing to go all-in and leave behind his life and asked to say goodbye to his parents. Elijah did not object, provided that that final gesture was a closure to his old life and an opening to his new life. Elisha not only kissed his parents goodbye, he also fed the people with his oxen and burned his farming equipment. He let everything expire. He went all-in.

          Commitment is hard today for many of us. We want to make a decision, but we hesitate because the path ahead is unsure and unclear. We fail to commit because we want security. But a life without decision is a life without direction. A life without commitment is a life without conviction. Unless we make a choice for Christ and cast away everything that gets in the way of that commitment, we drift on the winds of change, endlessly weighing our options. Easily swayed by the latest fad or conversation, we find that any number of worldly things or pursuits or politics have become our gods.

          Jesus tells us in the Gospel to let our ‘yes’ mean yes and our ‘no’ mean no. Our ‘yes’ to God cannot be a ‘maybe’. ‘Maybe’ prevents us from living fully in union with Christ and collaborating in the building of his Kingdom. When we say ‘yes’ and commit to it fully, we become free, we become disciples, we open a door to the new life God has in store.