Dear Family, 
Ever since Last Sunday night, I’ve been thinking about Father Joe Carney, a classmate of mine from the class of 1968. He came from Euclid which is a suburb of Cleveland and I think he would have been delighted that the “Cavs” won the ABA championship. How many years (like Boston) did the town go without a major sports championship? When the Marlins won our first World Series from Cleveland in 1997, I don’t think I ever rubbed it in too much, but I can’t be sure if there wasn’t a chuckle or two.
Joe died January 2, 2013 leaving me the last working priest from our class. Although he came to Florida specifically to enter the seminary in 1960, there was always a special place for Cleveland in his heart. His brother, Bob, was a policeman there and his parents lived here for a while after they retired and Joe had been ordained, but they returned. Cleveland had a strong draw on the Carneys. But Miami ministry won out in Joe’s case.
Maybe all this has been running through my mind because I also looked at today’s readings in advance (last Monday.) We heard the call of Elisha the prophet who Elijah picked – at God’s command – as his successor. I think they picked that first reading from the First Book of Kings because of the reference to Elisha’s parents. He tells Elijah that he will follow him but first he wants to go back and say goodbye to his parents. That would have been so much in keeping with the Israelite’s sense of obligation as well as devotion to parents.
So in response Elijah says, “Go back!” But then he adds something I’ve never quite understood, at least until now. Elijah says, “Have I done anything to you?” At first I thought it meant, don’t bother following me if you can’t do it immediately. But that wasn’t it. Rather Elijah was saying, “You go back and I’m not doing anything that puts any obligation on you to come back.” And of course, being left in that freedom, Elisha comes back, despite the fact that twelve yoke of oxen seems to indicate he would have been leaving a great deal of wealth.
When we get to today’s gospel, however, it seems that Jesus has raised the stakes. Whether it was burying a father, or saying farewell to a family, Jesus uses another metaphor. When someone plowed, they had to make sure they constantly kept their eyes on some point on the horizon. If they turned around to look back, that’s all it would take for the furrow to become jagged. “No one who sets a hand to the plow and looks to what was left behind is fit for the kingdom of God." In other words, “You are not going to do the job of following me very well if you can’t come unconditionally.”
I suspect you will have heard me repeat some of this in this weekend’s homily. It will be a sign that I remained for the rest of the week in an attitude of really thinking about what does it mean to be a follower …not only thinking about it, but wondering how well I am doing it. God help the first one of you who says, “You’re doing a great job, Father.” That’s not the point. Maybe this is:
In her reflection written for today in Creighton (University’s) Online Ministry reflection, Mary Lee Brock talked about what ‘following’ entails. Jesus had three examples. I’ve been asking myself,
1. How often do I cling to the comforts of home or friends rather than push myself in following Jesus?”
2. Life’s day to day responsibilities can pile up, providing a profound distraction. What is getting in the way of my being a follower?
3. How focused is my plowing? That might be another way of asking do I really remember what I’m doing and for whom. What keeps me from looking ahead?
Somehow it all seems in keeping with the challenge we got from last week’s gospel: “Who do you say that I am?” I’m still working on that one. The two Sundays seemed linked because I think if I figure out who HE is, somehow I’ll know what to do. Let’s pray for each other,
In Jesus,
