Walking with Jesus: Twenty-Third Sunday in Ordinary Time

For Sunday, September 4, 2022

Wisdom 9:13-28; Philemon 9-10, 12-17; Luke 14:25-33

Jesus has always asked difficult tasks of every person who chooses to be His follower. Even for those who are cradle Catholics, continuing to be followers of Jesus is not easy. Today He tells us all that “… one must hate parents, spouse, siblings, even [their] own life. ... Must carry your own crosses, all of them all the time.” [Luke 14:26-27] What is He telling us? Is He serious? What is happening that makes Jesus seem so negative and unloving?

The synoptic writers -- Matthew, Mark and Luke -- tell us that Jesus only journeys to Jerusalem ONCE to emphasize that everything in His life points to His upcoming, horrendous agony, death and rising. These events are the purpose of His life and of eternal life for each of us. Jesus knows that He can expect nothing but betrayal, even from His loyalists; condemnation from all the religious and civil authorities; humiliation beyond comprehension; and torture ... and He knows that on the third day He will rise. He also knows that everyone, every single person who wants to be His follower, will have to follow the same path:

We will have to die to self and live the only life that is worth living, life with Christ which by love and example will bring every person to heaven. It will mean a total renunciation of the world and living the only love that Jesus lived and taught us, which is the Love of God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Can I do it? Do I want to do it? Do I feel that this is impossible for me? No, it isn’t, because Jesus promised to be with us every moment, with the Holy Spirit leading and helping us.

On this Labor Day weekend, I would like to share a recent story I read that recalled a memory from way back. Why do certain things happen in our lives? Is God present in them? Yes, they happen according to God’s plan … and God is always with us, leading us closer to Himself and true love and heaven.

From “The Girl in the Photograph,” The New York Times, June 12, 2022:

It was the iconic photograph of the Vietnamese War: A 9-year old girl with outstretched arms, running through her village screaming, her naked skin burning from a Napalm explosion.

The haunting photo was taken by Associated Press photographer Nick Ut on June 8, 1972. The photo was picked up immediately by news media around the world and would go on to win the Pulitzer Prize.

The little girl in the photo, Kim Phuc Phan Thi, is now a 59-year-old wife and mother living in Ontario. She remembers that day 50 years ago:

‘Nick changed my life forever with that remarkable photograph. But he also saved my  life. After he took the photo, he put his camera down, wrapped me in a blanket and whisked me off to get medical attention. I am forever thankful.

‘Yet I also remember hating him at times. I grew up detesting that photo. I thought to myself, I am a little girl. I am naked. Why did he take that picture? Why didn’t my parents protect me? Why did he print that photo? Why was I the only kid naked while my brothers and cousins in the photo had their clothes on? I felt ugly and ashamed.’

In the wake of the photo’s publication, Kim became a propaganda tool for the Communist government, paraded before the world as a symbol of the horrors of the war being inflicted on the Vietnamese people by the United States.

Kim has struggled to make people understand that she and other survivors in such photographs ‘are not symbols. We are human. We must find work, people to love, communities to embrace, places to learn and to be nurtured.’

Kim defected to Canada where, with the help of her husband, friends and newfound Christian faith, she realized her mission. She founded Kim Foundation International, which provides medical and psychological assistance to children who are victimized by war.

‘I know what it is like to have your village bombed, your home devastated, to see family members die and bodies of innocent civilians lying in the street. These are the horrors of war from Vietnam memorialized in countless photographs and newsreels.  Sadly, they are also the images of wars everywhere, of precious human lives being damaged and destroyed today in Ukraine.

‘I have carried the results of war on my body. You don’t grow out of the scars, physically or mentally. I am grateful now for the power of that photograph of me as a 9-year-old, as I am of the journey I have taken as a person. My horror -- which I barely remember -- became universal. I’m proud that, in time, I have become a symbol of peace. It took me a long time to embrace that as a person. I can say, 50 years later, that I’m glad Nick captured that moment, even with all the difficulties that image created for me.’

Sacred Space 2022 states:

“Jesus wants us to know the scale of the task ahead of us; when it seems too much for us, what are we to do? To whom can we turn for help? I ask God to keep me in mind of my own need, that I may have the humility and trust always to seek help.”