Call yourself a Christian? Better be one!

WORD 2day: Wednesday, 31st week in Ordinary time

November 4, 2020: Philippians 2: 12-18; Luke 14:25-33

If you call yourself a Christian you better be one, says the Word today. You want to construct a tower but you don't want to procure the material; you want to fight the battle but you don't care to gather the soldiers; you want to be called a Christian but you don't want to take in all those things that make up being true to that name! What a shame!

What does it take then, to be a Christian? 

To be a light when every one around is getting used to the darkness! Everything seems alright today - corruption, discrimination, political vendetta, development that tramples underfoot the poor and the helpless, the rocketing cost of living, the exorbitant demands of medical care, the manipulation of education system...everyone has gotten, or are getting, used to these. A light cannot but expose things around, it cannot hide unless it is blocked or blown off. 

To carry the cross with love when every one around you is waiting to shake off even an extra speck of dust on them! The Cross reminds us of the love that was involved in the pain that the Son of God suffered for our sake. The reminder is also a challenge: how much of love is involved in the way your bear your daily cross, your burdens of life, your share for the sake of others? 

To be holy and blameless while everyone around is losing the very sense of those terms! How easily we find compromises, justifications, rationalisations, that exempt us from the way of life that God has called us to. How easily we place an yes and a no together, while Jesus' style demands that an yes be an yes, and a no, no!

That is what it takes to be a Christian - to be a light in the darkness, to carry my cross with love and to be holy and blameless before God. O Lord Jesus Christ, give us the strength, the courage and the light to walk in your footsteps, carrying our crosses and and making a difference in every life we encounter. You are our light and our salvation.