1 Kings 19:16, 19-21/ Galatians 5:1, 13-18/ Luke 9:51-62
The month of June can be called a month of beginnings and endings.
The school holidays started in June and it’s also going to end in June.
And as we look at the calendar, the month of June signals the end of the first half of the year and after that it will be the beginning of the second half of the year.
But for the Church in Singapore, the month of June this year has a special significance in terms of beginnings and endings.
In the month of June, we are blessed with three priestly ordinations – Fr Bernard Wee (21 June), Fr Eugene Lee CSsR (27 June), Fr Gerard Danker SJ (29 June).
We rejoice with these three young priests as they began their priesthood in the month of June.
Yet, it is also in the month of June that we bade farewell to two priests as they returned home to the Lord – Fr Alfred Chan (1 June) and Fr Joseph Yau (22 June). May God grant them eternal rest and reward them for their labours.
So for some, God has called to follow Him and serve Him; for some, God has called home to be back with Him.
So, for the Church in Singapore, the month of June is indeed a month of beginnings and endings.
In the gospel, we hear of beginnings and endings too.
Jesus was beginning His journey to Jerusalem. And it will be there that His earthly journey would also come to an end.
And as He began His journey to Jerusalem, He immediately faced rejection from a Samaritan town.
But instead of retaliation, as James and John suggested, Jesus resolutely went on in His direction.
Along with that, Jesus also gave His disciples a teaching on the cost of discipleship.
Yes, to be His disciple, one would have to face rejection. Also there would be no comfort and no security – there would be nowhere to lay the head.
Even priorities are changed as one has to leave family ties aside.
Even personal sentiments have to give way to the direction set for the disciple.
In short, if we want to be a disciple of Jesus, we do not have the freedom to do what we like.
That sounds like tough news, even more like bad news!
But a true disciple of Jesus will understand the good news of discipleship, and that is to be free from other attachments so as to follow Jesus totally and freely.
For the disciple, there is only one direction – to focus on Jesus and to follow in the direction of Jesus.
We are very familiar with that classic children’s story of the hare and the tortoise. Maybe let us revisit the story and see what new lesson we can learn from it.
Once upon a time there was a hare who, boasting how he could run faster than anyone else, was forever teasing tortoise for its slowness.
Then one day, the irate tortoise answered back: “There’s no denying you’re swift, but you can be beaten!” The hare squealed with laughter.
“Beaten in a race? By whom? Not you, surely! I bet there’s nobody in the world that can win against me, I’m so fast. Now, why don’t you try?”
Annoyed by such bragging, the tortoise accepted the challenge. A course was planned, and the next day at dawn they stood at the starting line.
The hare yawned sleepily as the meek tortoise trudged slowly off.
When the hare saw how painfully slow his rival was, he decided, half asleep on his feet, to have a quick nap. “Take your time!” he said. “I’ll have forty winks and catch up with you in a minute.”
The hare woke up after a while and gazed at the tortoise. But the tortoise was only a short distance away, having barely covered a quarter of the course.
Then the hare decided he might as well have lunch and off he went to munch some cabbages he had noticed in a nearby field. But the heavy meal and the hot sun made his eyelids droop. With a careless glance at the tortoise, now halfway along the course, he decided to have another snooze before flashing past the winning post.
And smiling at the thought of the look on the tortoise’s face when it saw the hare speed by, he fell fast asleep and was soon snoring happily.
The sun started to sink, below the horizon, and the tortoise, who had been plodding towards the winning post since morning, was scarcely a yard from the finish.
At that very point, the hare woke with a jolt. He could see the tortoise a speck in the distance and away he dashed. He leapt and bounded at a great rate, his tongue lolling, and gasping for breath. Just a little more and he’d be first at the finish line.
But the hare’s last leap was just too late, for the tortoise had beaten him to the winning post. Poor hare! Tired and in disgrace, he slumped down beside the tortoise who was silently smiling at him.
And the tortoise said, “Slowly and steady wins the race!”
But the hare could not accept it and so he asked for a re-match.
And this time he trained hard for the race.
So came the day for the race, and the hare stretched every muscle and warmed up thoroughly.
The gun was fired, the race began, but in the end, the hare still lost the race! Why?!?! Well, the hare ran in the wrong direction.
So besides the moral of the story being that slow and steady wins the race, there is also another essential factor – One must be focused and be firm in going the right direction.
To be a disciple of Jesus, we need to be focused on Him and follow Him faithfully in His direction.
When we are focused and faithful to Jesus, then we will have a good beginning as well as a good ending.