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Welcome to Unpacking the Mass with Keith Nestor. On this podcast, we dig into the week's readings for the upcoming Sunday for the Catholic Church so that when you go to Mass, you are ready to hear what God has to say to you through the Scriptures. So grab your Bibles and let's get digging. Welcome to Unpacking the Mass. My friends, today we are looking at the readings for the 13th Sunday and in Ordinary Time. And ultimately, what we are going to be talking about today is what it means to follow Jesus. Not just in terms of like, okay, these are the rules I have to follow, but what does it mean in terms of your level of allegiance to him? What do you have to leave behind? And where is he taking you? We're going to begin today by looking at a really interesting question call to discipleship that's found in the Old Testament book of First Kings. We're talking about the call of Elisha. Now, Elisha is called to be a prophet by Elijah. So there's two different prophets. There's Elijah and Elisha. And what we see in first kings 19 in our first reading is how this calling took place. And it reads this way. The Lord said to Elijah, you shall anoint Elisha the son of Shabhat of Abel, Meholah Ola, as prophet to succeed you. Elijah set out and came upon Elisha, the son of Shaphat, as he was plowing with 12 yoke of oxen. He was following the 12th. Elijah went over to him and threw his cloak over him. Elisha left the oxen, ran after Elijah and said, please let me kiss my father and mother goodbye and I will follow you. Elijah answered, go back. Have I done anything to you? Elisha left him and taking the yoke of oxen, slaughtered them. He used the plowing equipment for fuel to boil their flesh and gave it to his people to eat. Then Elisha left and followed Elijah as his attendant. This is a pretty interesting story, isn't it? So what we see here is Elijah and man, if you want to see some amazing stuff, read the rest of 1st Kings 19 and before about what Elijah goes through. Well, now he's being called to basically bring along his successor, who would be Elisha. And when he comes up to him, he does this cool thing where he takes his. His cloak and he throws it over the top of him. And it's if what he's saying is the mantle of leadership that I have been bearing is now going to come over on top of you. It's like, this is you're going to be literally taken under my wing. And Elisha, of course, is like, he's working his job, he's plowing with the ox, and he's behind the back. What does he say? He says, well, okay, let me go back and say goodbye to my parents. And Elijah basically says, okay, you know what? If you want to do that, fine, see ya. And Eli, and Elisha then sort of is like, I. From what I understand, it looks like he's just, okay, hold on a second, I'll be right back. And he goes, and he takes the, the yoke and he slaughters the Oxford. And then he has this big feast, kind of like a going away party, right? He gives it to his people. He says, I'm out of here. And the way it looks to me is, it's as if he says, okay, if this is what it's really going to take to follow you, then I'm going to do it. Elisha left and followed Elijah as his attendant. Now why is this an important text? Because what we're going to see in our gospel is a similar type of call to discipleship where we have a little bit different response here, my friends. But I think what's interesting to consider here is to understand that to follow the prophet Elijah, Elisha is going to have to completely change his life. And I love what he does here. He leaves no room for return. You know, he doesn't say, well, okay, hey, put this stuff away, I may need to come back. If this doesn't work out, I'll come back and we can, you know, I can pick up where I left off. No, he says, look, I'm all in on this, so. So all in am I that I'm going to destroy my tools and I'm going to eat my oxen and have a party so that I can be like, all right, gives it to his people, says, I'm out of here. Super incredible. And I want you to keep that mindset of Elisha in the back of your mind as we continue to look at our text. Because ultimately what we're talking about today is what it means to follow Jesus and be his disciple versus living according to the world's way. I Our responsorial psalm comes from Psalm 16. You are my inheritance, O Lord. Keep me, O God, for in you I take refuge. I say to the Lord, my Lord, are you, O Lord, my allotted portion and my cup? You it is who hold fast my lot. You are my inheritance, O Lord. I bless the Lord who counsels me even in the night. My heart exhorts me, I set the Lord ever before me. With him at my right hand, I shall not be disturbed. You are my inheritance, O Lord. Therefore my heart is glad and my soul rejoices. My body too abides in confidence, because you will not abandon my soul to the netherworld, nor will you suffer your faithful one to undergo corruption. You are my inheritance, O Lord. You will show me the path to life for fullness of joys in your presence, the delights at your right hand forever. You are my inheritance, O Lord. Now, this is really interesting because the psalmist is basically saying, look, my inheritance isn't in the things of the world. I'm not looking at the stuff I can accumulate here and the stuff I can receive from others as what's going to sustain me and provide for me in my life. What sustains me and provides for me my life is the Lord. And I'm going to put all my eggs in that basket, so to speak. I'm going to go all in on following God, because God has given himself to me and has called me to follow him. And I will bless the Lord, no matter when it is day or night. God is before me and my heart is glad and my soul rejoices. See, here's the thing that we have to remember. When we are called to follow the world's way, we're doing so because we think that's what's going to be best for us. But what the Scriptures teach us is that that's not what's best for us. To follow the world's way is to lead yourself into what might look to be awesome at the beginning, but eventually turns out to be a raw deal, to be disappointing, to be slavery and to be bondage to the things of this world. And that's what we're going to see in our text in Galatians. But I think it's interesting that we have this psalm where we are calling out to God, saying, you are my inheritance, O Lord. Not this is important. Not what you give me is my inheritance. I mean, how many of us live like that in our faith? We're like, lord, give me this, give me that. But the psalmist says, you are my inheritance, O Lord. See, when we come to this place, you guys, where we recognize that, that we search God for God, not for what God gives to us or what God does, then we've arrived at this incredible relationship with God. But sadly, what happens is, so oftentimes we use God as a means to an end, don't we? We seek God for what we think God can give us? So people sometimes have this experience where they're like, oh, my life is a disaster, and I've been living according to the world, and it's just not gone well. So maybe what I need to do is change my strategy and become religious or start going to church or whatever so that I can have a better life. And if I follow God, then God will give me what I want. You know, I've been doing this the wrong way. I've been trying to do this myself. And what I really need to do is get God on my side. Now, that might sound kind of cool, actually. It might sound good. But you have to remember, what is the ultimate objective in our lives? Is it to achieve the goals that we set for ourselves? And we've come to this place where we go, this isn't working out on my own. I better get God on my side. Lots of people do that, my friends. I've heard lots of testimonies like that of people who have hit rock bottom. And they said, well, my goal ultimately is to get out of rock bottom. And the only way that's going to happen is if I get God on my side. So. So, God, I'll do what you want me to do, but you gotta get me out of this mess. That's not what we're talking about, friends. The psalmist doesn't say, the stuff you do for me, God is my inheritance. He says, you, oh, Lord, are my inheritance. And that's the place where Jesus is trying to bring us. That's the place where we are trying to go to follow Jesus based on relationship with him and receiving Him. That's where we need to go. And what we're going to see in our Gospel, and even in this second reading from the book of Galatians, is really that the end result of discipleship isn't getting a bunch of stuff, it's getting God. And that's what we need. All right, let's take a look at this. From Galatians, chapter 5, verse 1, and then verses 13 through 18, St. Paul writes these words, brothers and sisters, for freedom. Christ set us free, so stand firm and do not submit again to the yoke of slavery. For you were called for freedom, brothers and sisters, but do not use this freedom as an opportunity for the flesh. Rather, serve one another through love. For the whole law is fulfilled in one statement, namely, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. But if you go on biting and devouring one another, beware that you are not consumed by one another. I Say, then live by the Spirit and you will not gratify the desire of the flesh. For the flesh has desires against the Spirit and the spirit against the flesh. They are opposed to, to each other so that you may not do what you want, but if you are guided by the Spirit, you are not under the law. Now there's a lot to unpack here. Okay? What St. Paul is talking about in, in Galatians, a lot of Galatians is about this understanding that Jesus Christ came to set the people free from believing that their salvation was determine on whether or not they followed the Old Covenant laws. And what St. Paul is saying is, look, you've been delivered from that, you've been set free from these obligations of the law. But he goes a step further. He's saying you've also been set free from this slavery to sin. And I think it's interesting, he says, don't use your freedom of the law or from the law as an opportunity for the flesh. Because let's face it, if you followed the law, you were going to be protected from certain things in the flesh. You were, you were very devout, you were very focused on, you know, what you can eat, what you can drink, a lot of the things that the law kept the Israelites sort of in a moral place. And what St. Paul is saying is, look, your salvation is not, is not dependent on this law because that law has been fulfilled. But that doesn't mean that anything goes in terms of your behavior. And that's very important that we understand because there tends to be certain perspectives in Christianity or whatever where some people are really wrapped up in the rules and the laws, okay? And then other people are so against that that they think that any type of requirement of behavior or any type of prohibition is somehow the same as what St. Paul was admonishing the Jews to not do, which was go back into the slavery of the old Covenant. Okay, hear what I'm saying here. Some people, when they find Jesus, they, they go, man, this is awesome. I don't have to like live according to all these rules anymore. And you hear people a lot of times who they connect us with Catholicism sometimes, or fundamentalist Protestantism, because Catholicism and sometimes fundamentalist Protestantism can have what they refer to as this slavery to a works based salvation, which of course is not true at all. But that's the argument that's made. I was talking to someone recently who's like, oh, their family member was leaving the Catholic Church and they found this thread of Protestantism and they kept saying, oh, I'VE been set free from all of the rules of my terrible slavery inducing Catholic faith. And the idea was that, well, in Catholicism you have all these rules you have to follow, but if you could just submit yourself to Christ, he set you free from all these rules, from all of these things. And you know, by free to freedom we're set free, right? I mean, that's what Jesus has called us to do. You hear people talk like that sometimes. But what is this really talking about? You see, what it's saying is, look, your freedom is not licensed to sin. And your freedom doesn't mean that God hasn't shown you the way to live or called you into a type of lifestyle. But what it means is this, you don't go from one form of slavery into another form of slavery. And the two forms of slavery that the Apostle Paul was contrasting in Galatians was slavery to the law and slavery to sin. And unfortunately, people oftentimes equate those two things. They go from one to the other. They go, well, I don't have to be a slave to any kind of religious laws anymore. I'm going to do whatever I want. But then what do they do? They, in the name of freedom, they become slaves to sin. And I can show you how this happens in people's lives. Okay, for example, let's say someone says, oh, I don't want to have to, you know, follow that mean rigid Catholic faith and you know, do things like fast and pray and all these things that I, you know, I'm just going to follow these rules and I'm going to just go off and do what I want and just love Jesus, well, then what happens is you start to have to have this guiding principle of how you're going to live your life. And if you've already decided that your faith isn't going to inform you anymore because anything that looks like a rule, you're going to say, that's slavery to the law and works righteousness. Then the only thing that's left ultimately is your flesh. The only thing that's left to guide you is your own personal desires. And what can happen is then you can start to orient yourself towards, well, what do you want to do? And once you start doing that, that is a slippery slope, my friends. Because when you decide that you're going to set aside the commands of Christ and you're going to take up your flesh as the guide for what your life's going to be, then you're going to be in trouble. Now, no one thinks they're Doing that, okay? But it so easily happens. Because what can happen when you set aside what the church teaches and the commands of Christ and the commands of his church is now you get to create your own way of life based around your, of course, your own opinions. People do it all the time. And you can always tell. I'll give you a great example. I had a comment recently on a video that I made where someone said, hey, Keith, I could never become a Catholic because I have two daughters and I could never join a church that tells my daughters that they can't be priests because they're the wrong gender and they're disqualified and ineligible. So therefore I could never become Catholic because that's just wrong to me. And you know, that person is like in a liberal Protestant denomination that is falling apart because of that exact thing. And what, what has happened there is someone has said, I'm going to decide what I think is appropriate and what's not appropriate. And of course, in their mind, there should be no distinction between male and female when it comes to the ministerial priesthood. And the fact that there is, that's their line. And saying, well, I can't be Catholic because I already have this unmovable belief. And it doesn't matter what you show them in the Bible, doesn't matter what you explain to them. They've already disqualified the church that Jesus founded because it doesn't match up with their own opinions. That's the kind of thing that we're talking about. You see, when we live our lives according to the desires of the flesh, it's not just about, oh, I'm going to look at this inappropriate stuff or drink that, or. It's not always just about, like, these fleshly desires, okay? Those things are there. It's also about the desires of our flesh to create our own version of who God is to match up with our own opinion. I think that's even more dangerous, okay? Because we can convince ourselves that we've got the truth of the gospel when all we've really done is we've taken our own opinions and we've created a God in our image based on the desire of the flesh. And that is not freedom, my friends. That is slavery. That is slavery. You see, to the world, adherence to the commands of Christ looks like slavery, but in fact, it's freedom. That's because the world has. Has it backwards. The world thinks that slavery to sin is in fact freedom. Now all you have to do is look at our society and you can see this, okay? People are hopelessly addicted in the Name of freedom. Now, what's more, you know, conducive to freedom, addiction or sobriety? What is more conducive to freedom? Being in crazy amounts of debt because your flesh desired you to buy all these things, or owing no man anything except for love, as the scripture says. Think about the things that we do in society that causes us to be enslaved to something because our flesh desires it. We become addicted to chemicals. We become addicted to mindsets and ideologies. We modify things in our lives. And even people modify their bodies according to their particular line of thinking right? Now that, in essence, what it does is it makes them slaves to that desire of the flesh. The key to freedom, according to the scripture, is to be led by the spirit, not the flesh. Because when you're led by the spirit, these things can't control you. Think about the mind of an addict. Now, I don't know if you've ever been addicted to anything, but when. When you're addicted to something, you're not really thinking clearly anymore. But when you've been taken out from under the influence of those chemicals or whatever, now you can begin to think clearly. Sin is a lot like that. When you're stuck in a cycle of sin and a compulsion to sin, it's hard to think clearly, isn't it, my friends? And that compulsion leads you into doing things that you don't want to do in your spirit, but you feel like you have to do them. Think about that. There's. And there's so many examples that we could point to where people find themselves locked in this endless cycle. And even in their mind they can go, I don't really want to live like this anymore. But they feel stuck. They feel in bondage. Okay, that's slavery. And what the scripture is telling us is if you walk according to the Spirit, then you won't live like that anymore because the spirit's going to take you in a completely different direction to where the flesh doesn't have control over you anymore. Now, what's the key to that, friends? We're going to find out as we look at our gospel. When the days for Jesus being taken up were fulfilled, he resolutely determined to journey to Jerusalem. And he sent messengers ahead of him on the way. They entered a Samaritan village to prepare for his reception there. But they would not welcome him because the destination of his journey was Jerusalem. When the disciples, James and John, saw this, they asked, lord, do you want us to call down fire from heaven to consume them? I love that Jesus turned and rebuked them, and they journeyed to another village. As they were proceeding on their journey, someone said to him, I will follow you wherever you go. Jesus answered him, foxes have dens, and birds of the sky have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to rest his head. And to another he said, follow me. But he replied, lord, let me go first and bury my father. But he answered him, let the dead bury their dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God. And another said, I will follow you, Lord, but first let me say farewell to my family at home. To him, Jesus said, no one who sets a hand to the plow and looks to what was left behind is fit for the kingdom of God. Wow. Okay. So Jesus is heading to Jerusalem. You know when it says that the days were fulfilled for him to be taken up, it's talking about it's time for Jesus to make a move to Jerusalem. For, of course, when he will be taken up on the cross. Now he's heading to Jerusalem, and he's going to go through Samaria, but they won't welcome him. So what happens? You know, why won't they welcome him? Well, the Samaritans hate the Jews. The Jews hate the Samaritans. And when they hear that Jesus is ultimately going to Jerusalem, they're like, well, then we don't want him here. And I think it's interesting, James and John are like, we should call down fire upon these guys. And Jesus isn't interested in that. He's like, let's just go another way. I think that there's something there. Jesus was ready to go through Samaria in this Samaritan village. And the people said, no. So what did Jesus do? He. He just went a different way. Oftentimes we're called to follow him, but Jesus doesn't force himself on us. We all have the opportunity to accept him or reject him. And if you reject him, he doesn't just stand there and cry. And he also doesn't go, nope, you don't get to do that. Oftentimes he goes another way, which is kind of scary. I mean, we don't want him to go another way. We want to receive him. So, friends, that's why we have to remember when we have an opportunity to receive Jesus, when we have an opportunity to hear the word of God and to receive it, we need to take that opportunity because we don't know how many opportunities we're going to have in this life. And when we think that, oh, I'll just deal with it later, you know, you're not guaranteed later when Jesus is coming, hey, receive him. All right, so what happens? People are wanting to follow Jesus. Someone comes up to him, hey, I want to follow you. Now I think it's interesting that Jesus says foxes have holes and birds have nests, but the Son of man has nowhere to rest his head. What's this mean? Basically what Jesus is saying to this guy is following me is not going to be a cakewalk. It's not what you think it is. Now you got to remember, Jesus knows what's in every one of these guys hearts. He knows what their issue is. He knows that like for example, the rich young ruler, he knows that he's super rich, that's what, and he's connected to his money. That's why Jesus says, go and sell all you have. Give to the poor and follow me. And the guy can't do it. Jesus never said that to Peter because Peter wasn't rich. But Jesus is able to know what's in the heart of the people that are coming to him, saying, hey, I want to follow you. And apparently this guy, what was connected in his heart was this desire to have a plan, to know what he was going to do to be secure. And Jesus is like, look, it's not what it's like to follow him. Now Jesus approaches another person and extends an invitation and says, come, follow me. And what does this guy say? Well, okay, I'm good for that, but let me go bury my father. Now we don't know if that means that his father just died and like they're waiting to bury him, or if that means that this guy wants to go home and fulfill his duty to his parents in his mind and stay there until his father dies. We don't, we don't know. But what does Jesus say? Let the dead bury their dead. That's kind of a harsh thing to say, but ultimately what Jesus is saying is, look, I'm inviting you into spiritual life. Your family is spiritually dead and they need to take care of themselves. You need to come follow me to another person. He says, I will follow you, Lord, but let me first go back and say goodbye to my family. Now that doesn't seem so bad, right? Let me go back and say goodbye to my family. Now what does this remind you of? Of course it reminds you of what we saw in our first reading where Elisha was like, let me go back and kiss my father and mother goodbye. And what does Elijah do? He says, hey, whatever, it's up to you, whatever you want to do. And Then Elisha's like, okay, never mind. Slaughters the oxen, gets rid of the. Of the equipment and has a fire and says, okay, let's go. Now, we don't know if his father and mother came out and if he was one of the ones that ate that. He says he gave it to his people to eat. But here's what we do know. Elisha was basically saying, all right, I get what this is all about, and I'm not going to leave any room to return. I'm going. But apparently this guy who wants to go back to his father and mother is still so connected to them that he's unable to follow Jesus. Here's what we need to remember from this. Following Jesus means that he's your master and he's got to be everything to you. You can't serve two masters. You can't live in two kingdoms. You've got to love one and hate the other. And this is what we're talking about with the call to discipleship versus the call to live according to the world's way. What does it mean when Jesus says, no one who sets a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service to the kingdom of God. Let's talk about what it means to look back now. I'm reminded of the Hebrews when they were delivered out of slavery. And yet when things got tough for them in the desert, what did they do? It says that they looked back fondly on their time in slavery, and they were like, oh, that was awesome. We had all kinds of meat to eat. Wasn't that great? Maybe we should go back there. I think for us, sometimes there can even be tendencies after we've come away from our sinful past, to allow ourselves to drift back in our mind and remember those days fondly. We can't do that, my friends. We can't be like, oh, yeah, I used to be a raging alcoholic, and I ran around with the wrong crowd and did all kinds of terrible things. Then I became a Christ follower. Now my life is way better. But those were sure some good times. Yeah. Remember that time when we did this? You know, we're not supposed to look back fondly on our time of slavery to the world. And I don't know that a lot of us do this, but I think it can be a temptation sometimes, because the devil might say to us, especially when we're in a trial in our faith, when things are tough, when we're suffering, to be able to look back and say, oh, man, it was easier back then. I've talked to a couple people recently who converted to Catholicism who were saying things to me like, oh man, yeah, I believe that the Catholic Church is the truth and I'm so fired up. But man, you know what? I just really miss being a Protestant. I miss that because I was so like just free flowing and happy and everything was great. Now I have all these rules I have to follow and all of this guilt that I have and everything. And oh, I just kind of wish I could go back. And that's a tough place to be. We're not supposed to do that because what we fail to do when we think like that is we fail to remember the slavery that we were in and we fail to appreciate the freedom that we now have. See, the other thing that it means to look back and to want to go back or look back is to remember that time and say, oh man, I wish I could go back there because it was easier. Friends, you don't become a Christian and decide to follow Jesus because it's the easier option. It's not, by the way, if that's what your motivation is in life. I want an easy life. Don't try to become a Christian because it's, it's hard. Jesus said it's going to be really hard. The way is narrow and few find it, but it leads to life. The, the way of the world is the wide road, the easy road, and many take that road, but it leads ultimately to destruction. If you think that following Jesus is going to make your life easier, you are in for a rude awakening. But when we take that narrow road and it's tough and we have difficult sections of it, sometimes it can be tempting to look over at the easy road and go, oh man, I sure do miss those days. We can't do that because if we do, we won't be fit for service in the kingdom. Because following Jesus is going to take us in a completely different direction. And it's a direction where we have to be 100% focused on where we are going. It's kind of like riding a motorcycle. I was watching this video a couple weeks ago of a guy who was given instructions on teaching people to ride in pretty advanced ways. And he was showing this exercise where, you know, you talk about going around a steep curve. And what he was saying was, if you want to make that curve and get to where you're wanting to go, you have to be looking ahead of where you're going because you, you are going to go wherever your eyes look. That's where the Bike's going to go. And as a guy who's been riding motorcycles for a long time, I can tell you that's absolutely true. When you're riding down the road and you're coming up on a sharp curve, if you want to navigate that curve, the last thing you should do is look straight in front of you at what's right in front of your bike, because you will fall. You will. You will go right off the road. What you have to do is you've got to lean into it with trust, and you've got to look ahead to where you want to be and give it gas and commit yourself to it all the way. Otherwise you're going to fail miserably. You can't be like, hey, that was cool scenery back there. Check that out. No, you're going to crash. Friends, it's a lot like that with discipleship, if you want to, because the ride of discipleship is a fast ride and it requires you to lean into it with all that you've got and 100% to commit. You got to lean into that. But you've also got to be looking to where you want to go, not what's right in front of you. The next thing, because you're going to crash, and you certainly can't look back at what was back there behind you or you'll never make it. That's what Jesus is talking about when he says, if you. If you live your life like this, following him, you won't be fit for service to the kingdom, my friends. So I'm going to ask you this question. What does it look like for you to slaughter that oxen and to burn that plow? What does it look like for you to embrace discipleship and embrace freedom and not be drawn back into your old way of life, your old way of slavery? What does that look like for you? Where in your life have you been secretly hanging on to this idea that, you know, there were some things about my life before that were kind of cool and I missed those days. Friends, we can't do that. We've got to look ahead. We can't be drug around by the desires of our flesh anymore. If we want to follow Jesus, if we want to burn that plow, we've got to sacrifice ourselves. We've got to offer everything about who we are. Not because we're trying to get something from God, but because we're trying to get God. You are my inheritance, Lord, and I will sacrifice everything for you, to serve you and to follow you. And I'll burn that plow and eat those oxen so that there's nothing left for me to even return to. Friends, that's the kind of dedication that we need to have if we want to follow Jesus. I pray that you'll find that in your life and that I will in mine. Oftentimes it seems like the closer we get to Jesus, the more we realize that we're still hanging on to some stuff. And that's part of our journey of sanctification, is allowing the Lord to reveal to us in his mercy and in his grace the areas of our lives where we've looked back. So friends, let's draw near to the Lord. He's gracious and merciful and calls us, invites us to follow Him. My friends, will we receive Him? Will we make room for him and will we follow him and not look back? I pray that that's what we can do. My friends, thank you so much for joining me here on Unpacking the Mass. I hope this has been helpful to you to get your mindset ready to hear the word of God in Mass this Sunday. Please do me a favor and share this podcast Share this video make sure you like thumbs up. Subscribe all the stuff that you're supposed to do so we can help more people fall head over heels in love with Jesus Christ and His Word. God bless you all, my friends and I'll see you back here next week on Unpacking the Mass.