Homily Price - June 26, 2022

                Luke 9:51-62                                         6-26-2022                                    (As built, Amite #501)

1. Price… as in there’s a price to pay… nothing’s free…
2. My brothers and sisters in Christ if I told you that him and his family… they grew up in Venice… Venice Italy… and when I tell you in their day… they are the most dominate travelers of the world… they have their own fleet of ships… and I tell you they are the cargo people of the world… right in their world if you will… man they got vegetation… they got fabrics… they’ve got tools… they’ve got materials… man they’re the Walmart of your day… they got it all… they can ship it anywhere… and I got to tell you… their best player… as great as their dad is… their best player is the youngest one… man it’s his ability to understand money… currency exchanges… contracts… the law… or read of people… he just got the gift… and he tells his dad look… we’re good no doubt about it… he said but we got to get better… because there’s going to be people out there who are going to be better and quicker then we are… he said son look at us… he said look how far we’ve grown… he said father I’m telling you…I love this quote… we can’t be neutral… good quote… even if I say so myself but I digress… as a result of it he says well son what do you want to do… he said I need to travel the world… I need to go see what other people do… he said son that’s going to come with a price… that you can’t travel free… it’s going to take money… it’s going to take time… It’s going to take effort… and he said let’s be honest not everybody is going to welcome you… he said but it’s worth the price… for our children… for your great grandchildren… so off he goes… he goes to different countries but there is one country that’s lightyears… they seem to be doing more things than anybody else… China… nothing’s changed in two thousand years… as a result of it man he goes there… and when he get’s there he said it’s jaw dropping… he said they got bridges over rivers that expand and they’re so great… he said man they actually raise the bridges… so that ships can take the goods further inland… instead of everybody having to come and be limited by what you could carry back… he said and then if they can’t get to a city they build canals… he said man he cant get over it… he said they have a police department… they have a fire department… and the best… they have a sewer department… a man after my own heart… as a result of it this is… y’all this is the year 1800… he is saying that man they are turning on a dime… he’s not only there but it’s his personality… it’s the way he gets along… it’s the way he knows… it’s the thing he does… he becomes so enamored he stays there almost twenty years… as a result of it my brothers and sisters in Christ he finally comes back home… man his dad thought he’d been dead… I mean let’s be honest you’re gone that long… he said son… he said I basically just wrote you off as just what happened… the world… he said father I got to tell you what I saw was life altering… he said do you know… he said do you know they got this substance that is black… some of it is hard some of it is like a liquid… it can burn for days… oil… he said man they got this fruit that falls from the tree… it’s the size of a persons head… coconut… he said they got this animal that’s kind of in the water in the land… I’ve seen it eat a whole animal… I bet you if it got a hold of a person… it would gobble them up… alligator… he said man they’re just lightyears… he said but son look at the price you paid… he said but look what I’ve learned father… he said when we put out a fire we got to go get water… we got to throw dust on it… they got a fabric… they throw the fabric on it and it doesn’t burn… all be it asbestos I get you… he said but man I got to tell you it’s just that great… my brothers and sisters in Christ he was the greatest traveler of the day… oh man please Christopher Columbus really… Magellan following the straits of Magellan right the passage from if you will from south America over to the pacific ocean… this guy is the greatest traveler of the world today… and the only time we remember his name… is when you’re at a pool party… and you only know his first name… Marco… I needed y’all yesterday… okay we died a miserable death yesterday… man the price you pay… my brothers in Christ that is the price you pay for success...
3. That is that gospel… and the good Lord is warning his apostles… man the birds of the air have nest… foxes have their burrows… and I have no place to lay my head… so if you follow me… then the price you will pay is sacrifice… there is no greater love in the world than sacrifice… I so loved the world… I sent my son for the sacrifice of many… now stop… this is how it starts… they’re in Galilee… they got to get to Jerusalem… so let’s just… Christ comes to you… we live in Galilee… he says tomorrow we will head to Jerusalem… because that’s where we have to go to worship… it is about five thousand miles… on foot… the average person travels four to five miles per hour… on foot… a little over a hundred and twenty days… about four months… what a price to pay… my brothers in Christ that’s what he’s telling his apostles… that that’s where we have to go… now imagine doing that two or three times a year… which is what they would have to do… so they go through a county… called Samaria… this is why everybody get’s so indignant… because they were over run by the Assyrians… and therefore they intermingled… so now the Jews do not like them because they have not been true to their heritage… they have their own worship… even though they have the first five books they have their version of it… they have their own priesthood... they worship on the mount garrison which is a totally different mountain… this is why they don’t like Christ… because he’s going to Jerusalem… hence he’s a Jew… my brothers and sisters in Christ this is why James and John get so indignant… this is why James and John say man call down fire… look… James and John didn’t just do this arbitrarily… it’s their heritage… Elijah… called down fire… Elisha… sent an animal after people that were giving him a lot of grief… so it is their nature and their heritage… the act… and what Christ is saying is you can’t do that anymore… you’ve got to turn the other cheek… more importantly… if you’re going to follow me… I don’t want to hear that you got to go bury your father… I don’t want to hear that you got to go tell your folks… he said you got to stop what you’re doing… that might have been okay in Elijah’s time but it’s not now because I’m only here for three years… and this is it… you either are in with me or you are out… you are never neutral to me…
4. My brothers and sisters in Christ throughout scripture… I need you to think for a minute… throughout scripture our best players are people that paid a price to be a follower of Christ… if you’re thinking man it’s all about the money… can you imagine you’re Longinus… man do you understand Pilate can’t do anything without Longinus… Longinus is the centurions centurion… you want to go to battle… you want Longinus… you want somebody in your foxhole… it’s Longinus… you want to take over another city… it’s Longinus… for him to truly say in front of everybody… man that was the son of God… my brothers and sisters in Christ the price he pays… within weeks… within months… he’s got to pack up and leave… a year later… a year later they catch up with him… Pilate send people to go kill him… do you know what’s ironic… according to tradition… they actually catch up with him but don’t recognize him… and when he’s eating with them because they were in a small town… they’re saying they are looking for this guy and he said yes I know it’s me… and they said well look… since you were so great to us we’ll just tell everybody we didn’t find you… he said oh no you don’t… you came here to kill me… and so it will be… because I’m not backing up from what I believe… they behead him… there’s a price to pay for being a follower of Jesus Christ… you think Arimathea gave up his tomb just randomly… and there was no price to pay… man you give up your tomb to the one person they say is not God… man he was ostracized within a month or two… he’s on the lamb… as a matter of fact we believe he was ultimately martyred… Nicodemus actually had to leave and go to another country…
5. My brothers and sisters in Christ you don’t think there’s a price to pay to being a follower of Christ… nothing’s changed in two thousand years… every apostles was martyred… and to a certain extent so was John… who was boiled in oil… and when that didn’t kill him… they regulate him to the island of Patmos… well now here you and I sit two thousand years later… is it not reasonable… logical… that you and I should pay a price to be a follower of Jesus Christ… well lets see… are you willing to do the little things… to make that sign of the cross clearly and distinctly in a restaurant… where everybody knows… you’re Catholic… before everybody starts to eat… which is already well into the grace period… you all of a sudden say can we stop and say a prayer… knowing full well you’re going to get the look like really… and then all of a sudden you break out the sign of the cross… because people are going to say oh so you’re blessing yourself… you’re not blessing yourself… you’re asking God to bless you… bless us O Lord for these thy gifts which we’re about to receive through your bounty… through Christ our Lord… my brothers and sisters in Christ don’t you get it… you’re not blessing yourselves… your asking him to bless you… you’re letting everybody know I’m a follower of Christ… if you can’t do that… then how are you going to stand up… against the onslaught of the decision of Roe versus Wade… if you can’t stand up when they say are you a Christian… you say absolutely I’m Catholic… for two thousand for fifteen hundred years you’re either Jew or you’re Catholic… Christian is just a follower of Christ… how you worshipped him was Catholic… it means according to the whole… that if you gather in one place… you listen to the readings… you break bread… and you sing the psalms… you are no longer a Jew but Catholic… acts of the apostles… it became so popular it became universal… my brothers and sisters in Christ if you and I can’t do those little things… if we can’t pay the price now… how are we going to pay it later… my brothers and sisters in Christ are you willing to pay the price of going to confession… come to mass a little earlier so  you can have it done… or come here Tuesday or Wednesdays… my brothers in Christ are you willing to pay the price to make sure you’re family prays together as a whole… even  though everybody is running around and man time is of the essence… are you willing to pay the price to get up a little earlier… because God forbid we stayed up much later then we thought… you willing to pray together as a family before you go… husbands and wives are you willing to make sure you bend a knee literally bend a knee… so that you can pray for you and your family… for the protection they need before your head hits the pillow… my brothers and sisters in Christ if we can’t pay it on the little things then we will never be able to pay it on the big decisions… my brothers and sisters in Christ will you pay the price of staying at work late… because nobody else will do it but yet you’re the Simon… will you stay at work late paying the price because you know what needs to be done regardless of the decimal point… never tie your name to money… because the day you do… you’ll be the next name mentioned right after Judas and his thirty pieces of silver… my brothers in Christ are you willing to pay the price… to make sure you come to mass a little earlier so you can decompress… and listen to the chant… brothers in Christ will you make sure that maybe during the week you go to mass or what maybe oh God forbid… five minute in adoration a week… you’re on your phone at least and hour a day… my brothers and sisters in Christ I’m telling you… you got to learn to pay the price… there’s a price for everything… you’re not getting out of this world free… the only way you can say you love God is to study him… and the price you got to give up is time… the more you study him the more you love him… the more you love him the more you study him… the closer you get to Christ and the closer the gap gets… the better you will feel… the better you will understand then more grace will build on your nature… I promise you if you do not pay the price here… you will severely pay… in the life to come… and for all eternity…
6. And I leave you with this… there is a price to pay for success… there is a price to pay for object mediocrity… make no mistake about it… you will pay a price… one or the other… it might as well be the better… you know who said that… me…
7.  Amen.