23rd Sunday of Ordinary Time
Cycle C
September 8, 2019
St. Mary Parish, Pylesville 8:00am
Saint Matthew Parish, Baltimore 11:15am
A Seagull: Holding On
A few years ago, a father wrote about his family’s visit to Niagara Falls.
He says: “It was late March, and blocks of ice were rushing down the river. I could see that there were carcasses of dead fish embedded in the ice.
“Seagulls were riding on some of the blocks of ice, feeding on the fish. When they came to the brink of the Falls, their wings would fan out, and they would fly away and escape.
“But we noticed one particular seagull that seemed to be holding on and on and on. It seemed engrossed in the carcass of a fish and when it came to the brink of the Falls, out went its powerful wings.
“The bird flapped and flapped but its claws had become frozen in the ice. The weight of the ice was too great and that seagull plunged over the Falls into the abyss.”
Jesus: Letting Go
In today’s gospel, Jesus calls us to do what that one seagull failed to do.
Jesus calls us to be willing to let go. He is talking about what it means to be a person of faith, a disciple.
Jesus is using some exaggeration here, some hyperbole, like when he talks about hating our loved ones. This is a Semitic idiom of Jesus’ day that doesn’t mean to hate anyone, but instead it means to make a choice.
So here he is using this expression, an exaggeration, an idiom, as a way to teach us what is involved in being a disciple of his. Sometimes we have to make the choice to let go.
There are points in our lives where we need to let go and not be frozen in the ice. Points where we need to let go of 1) our ego or self, 2) of our attachments to family or friends, and 3) of our things or possessions.
We: Letting Go
For example, 1) sometimes we may need to let go of speaking and expressing all that we think. No question, voicing our opinion or our feelings is good.
But sometimes we may need to let go of self in this way and listen to the feelings of accomplishment or frustration or another person. And sometimes we may just need to take in the life experience of another and try to see things from their perspective.
Then, 2) there are points in life where we need, in a certain sense, to let go of our attachment to loved ones. Last month and this month, some young adults are leaving their family for the first time to go off to college and pursue their studies.
We may need to stick to our conviction about something even when those close to us think differently. Or we may feel obliged to reach out to that classmate whom others have pretty much cut off.
And then 3) there are situations where we may need, in a certain sense, to let go of our possessions and comforts. I wonder if these words of Jesus apply in our day especially to the environment.
Maybe we need to let go of habits that waste our resources. Or maybe we need to let go of practices that end up polluting our water and soil and air.
By the way, one Scripture scholar notes that Jesus in this gospel tells the two short parables about a landowner wanting to build a tower and a king thinking about going to war. This scholar notes that Jesus may use these images here because when we have material wealth or power, we may find it more difficult to let go.
Conclusion
So, Jesus calls us not to be like that seagull that just held on too long and got frozen in place. He is saying that to follow him fully, sometimes and in certain ways we have to let go of 1) self, 2) of loved ones, and 3) of possessions.
