disrupted plans: 13th Sunday C 2013

The gospel today shows us three reactions of people when things don’t go according to plan, when expectations are not met, and when things become out of control.

First the Samaritans.  Probably the Samaritans had plans which did not jibe with that of Jesus.  He was after all dead set on reaching Jerusalem, and so probably he had no time for them, he cannot find time to talk to them, or to heal them or to do what he did to people in other places.  Because Jesus was not meeting their expectations, because Jesus was not cooperating in the fulfillment of their plans, the Samaritans rejected him.  They don’t want to have anything from him anymore.

The second was the reaction of the disciples to the rejection of Samaritans – they wanted Jesus to call down fire to the Samaritans and destroy their city.  Thwarted in their plans for a Samaritan reception, and rejected by the community they asked Jesus to destroy the city by calling down fire on them all.  Again things have become upsetting for the disciples because expectations were not met, plans were not reached, and their journey was out of hand.

Third, there are also others whose plans were disrupted.  “I will follow you but let me bury my father first,” said one.  But again Jesus disrupts the plan and told him, “let the dead bury the dead.”  Another said, “I will follow you but let me say farewell first to my family at home.”  But Jesus said to him, No one who sets a hand to the plow and looks to what was left behind is fit for the kingdom of God.” Again Jesus disrupts the plan, thwarts expectations, wrestle control even though these expectations and plans were logical, reasonable and practical.

Today let us do some recollection.

What were the plans Jesus disrupted in your life, just this year?  These were to your thinking logical, reasonable, and practical, yet Jesus disrupted them.

Over control of what did you wrestle from God in an effort to keep this under your control?  Did this loss of control upset you greatly?

What were the expectations you set but did not meet?  What was your reaction to your failed outlook?  What was your reaction to people who stand on your way?  What were the emotions triggered when things went beyond our control or even when we feel, just the feeling, of losing control?  What were the emotions triggered?

It might be good to examine these reactions and imagine ourselves rebuked also by Jesus as the disciples were rebuked by him for calling on him to rain down fire on that Samaritan town because people did not deliver what they expected.

In our first reading Elisha allowed Elijah to rebuke him for his hesitancy in changing his plans, and for yielding the control of his life to God and to his vocation.  Without Elijah saying so many things, Elisha understood and immediately caught himself, and corrected himself.  He slaughtered his cows, he burnt his plow and he never turned back again. 

In this mass let us learn to pray the responsorial psalm and really mean it – you are my inheritance O Lord.  Many times in this changing world this prayer and affirmation is our only anchor that keeps us in the Lord.:  you are my inheritance. O Lord.  To have the Lord is enough.