“As they were walking along the road a man said to [Jesus], ‘I will follow You wherever You go.’ Jesus replied, ‘Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of Man has no place to lay His head.’ He said to another, ‘Follow Me.’ But the man replied, ‘Lord, first let me go and bury my father.’ Jesus said to him, ‘Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God.’ Still another one said, ‘I will follow You, Lord, but first let me go back and say good bye to my family.’ Jesus replied, ‘No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God.’” (Luke 9:57-62)
Now and then a young person will say to me that he or she would like to make a career of service to the Church and to Jesus Christ. I listen for a sign of radical commitment to their intention, and I try to explain the implications of what they feel they want to do with such a vocation. Regardless of what I may say or suggest, nothing can make the case as well as the Lord Jesus Himself in the above verses. All three eager men are filled with enthusiasm, and all three are challenged to consider the price.
Our Lord is saying to the first man: Think of the challenge to your security. To follow Jesus is to leave all homes behind and seek your place in His Father’s kingdom. What an unusual rabbi He was, so unlike all others who were identified with the towns where they studied. To find them was not difficult; they all had an address. Not so with Jesus. His disciples are all strangers in a foreign land, this territory that is far different from the kingdom that awaits us all. After Eden, there is no longer a paradise on earth, and if that is your basic need, you are not fit for service in the company of the Eternal Wanderer.
To the second would-be disciple who had a crying need to bury his father, whether he was still alive yet not for long, or if just deceased, to this son who felt the need to sit Kaddish, that memorial to the deceased imposed on all good Jews, Jesus is saying to proclaim instead the Kingdom of God. Kaddish is inspired by Ezekiel 38:23, a day when the Lord God will make His great holiness known among many nations, and it lasts for eleven months. Jesus doesn’t have time to wait, even for such an act of filial devotion. He has a kingdom of His own to proclaim, that of God His heavenly Father. It’s a conflict of values. To serve Christ is to love Him more than one’s own parents.
And to the third man Jesus demands a commitment once for all and forever. You cannot think it over later on and mull over whether it had been the right decision. If home, traditional values, and loved ones are so important that they impinge on your loyalty, go back to them. Hold onto what you have, for that is who you are. You are not ready to follow Jesus Christ. He won’t hold it against you; He will love you all the same—He has not rejected you. You have disqualified yourself.
Surely there is a difference between followers and believers. All those who believe in Him are welcomed by Him as well, but they are a different class from the followers who have as St. Peter said, “left everything to follow You” (Luke 18:28). Were there many who like the rich man in another gospel story went away sad, for they loved their wealth more than Christ? Only He knows. There were and still are those who returned, who remained in place, and those who followed Him even like St. John to the cross. Who knows what lies in the hearts of men and women who call themselves by the name of Christ? And who but He has the right and insight to judge them and us?