Twenty Third Sunday Homily in Ordinary Time Year C

TWENTY-THIRD SUNDAY HOMILY IN ORDINARY TIME YEAR C

Wis 9: 13-18 Phl 9f., 12-17 Lk 14:25-33

The Price of Being a Christian

The World’s Street-Smart Wisdom vs. God’s; Commitment, Self-Control, and Detachment.

Introduction

In our modern world, Christian faith can feel optional, a gentle invitation rather than an urgent call. Yet today’s readings cut through the comfort, demanding the true price of discipleship—not in monetary terms, but in wholehearted devotion, self-control, and detached love. The Book of Wisdom (9:13-18) reminds us that human understanding is limited—our planning falters, and concerns of the flesh weigh heavy on the mind Sunday Homily. We’re invited to seek divine wisdom, which alone illuminates the path forward.

Saint Paul’s letter to Philemon shows how Christian commitment intertwines with gentleness and intentional action. His plea for Onesimus invites us into a transformative form of love—one that does not demand but invites, bearing the weight of relationship with humility.

Then in Luke’s Gospel (14:25-33), Jesus challenges us: to follow Him, we must “hate” our close attachments—not literally, but in the sense of loving Him more than anything else, even our own lives. He asks us to bear our cross, to count the cost, to renounce all that we treasure epriest.com+1Daniel Ploof.

Together, these readings frame the price of being a Christian: a faith of profound commitment to God, disciplined self-control over our attachments, and detachment from even good things that compete for our allegiance. It’s a costly journey—but one that leads to true freedom, deeper communion with Christ, and a life transformed from within. May this homily help us reflect: Are we willing to pay that price?

1st Reading – Wisdom 9:13-18B

¹³ Who can know God’s counsel, or who can conceive what the LORD intends?

¹⁴ For the deliberations of mortals are timid, and unsure are our plans.

¹⁵ For the corruptible body burdens the soul and the earthen shelter weighs down the mind that has many concerns.

¹⁶ And scarce do we guess the things on earth, and what is within our grasp we find with difficulty; but when things are in heaven, who can search them out?

¹⁷ Or who ever knew your counsel, except you had given wisdom and sent your holy spirit from on high?

^18B And thus were the paths of those on earth made straight.

Responsorial Psalm – Psalms 90:3-4, 5-6, 12-13, 14 AND 17

R. (1) In every age, O Lord, you have been our refuge.

³ You turn man back to dust,
saying, “Return, O children of men.”
⁴ For a thousand years in your sight
are as yesterday, now that it is past,
or as a watch of the night.
R. In every age, O Lord, you have been our refuge.

⁵ You make an end of them in their sleep;
the next morning they are like the changing grass,
⁶ Which at dawn springs up anew,
but by evening wilts and fades.
R. In every age, O Lord, you have been our refuge.

¹² Teach us to number our days aright,
that we may gain wisdom of heart.
¹³ Return, O LORD! How long?
Have pity on your servants!
R. In every age, O Lord, you have been our refuge.

¹⁴ Fill us at daybreak with your kindness,
that we may shout for joy and gladness all our days.
¹⁷ And may the gracious care of the LORD our God be ours;
prosper the work of our hands for us!
Prosper the work of our hands!
R. In every age, O Lord, you have been our refuge.

2nd Reading – Philemon 9-10, 12-17

⁹ I, Paul, an old man, and now also a prisoner for Christ Jesus,

¹⁰ urge you on behalf of my child Onesimus, whose father I have become in my imprisonment;

¹² I am sending him, that is, my own heart, back to you.

¹³ I should have liked to retain him for myself, so that he might serve me on your behalf in my imprisonment for the gospel,

¹⁴ but I did not want to do anything without your consent, so that the good you do might not be forced but voluntary.

¹⁵ Perhaps this is why he was away from you for a while, that you might have him back forever,

¹⁶ no longer as a slave but more than a slave, a brother, beloved especially to me, but even more so to you, as a man and in the Lord.

¹⁷ So if you regard me as a partner, welcome him as you would me.

Alleluia – Psalms 119:135

R. Alleluia, alleluia.
¹³⁵ Let your face shine upon your servant;
and teach me your laws.
R. Alleluia, alleluia.

Gospel – Luke 14:25-33

²⁵ Great crowds were traveling with Jesus, and he turned and addressed them,

²⁶ “If anyone comes to me without hating his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.

²⁷ Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.

²⁸ Which of you wishing to construct a tower does not first sit down and calculate the cost to see if there is enough for its completion?

²⁹ Otherwise, after laying the foundation and finding himself unable to finish the work the onlookers should laugh at him

³⁰ and say, ‘This one began to build but did not have the resources to finish.’

³¹ Or what king marching into battle would not first sit down and decide whether with ten thousand troops he can successfully oppose another king
advancing upon him with twenty thousand troops?

³² But if not, while he is still far away, he will send a delegation to ask for peace terms.

³³ In the same way, anyone of you who does not renounce all his possessions cannot be my disciple.”

A Moral Story

Once, a young king prepared for a great journey. Many came offering treasures—gold, fine silk, precious gems. But the king insisted: “Bring what you love most.” Courtiers presented jewels, land deeds, even loyal friends. Yet the king declined each gift. Finally, one humble villager offered a simple wooden flute—something he’d cherished since childhood. Touched, the king accepted it. He whispered, “Only that which you are willing to surrender to me do you truly love.” True discipleship asks for everything—even the obscure and beloved.

10 Bible Verses

“For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not sit down first…” — Luke 14:28
“Renounce all that you have, and you cannot be my disciple.” — Luke 14:33
“Whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.” — Luke 9:24
“Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.” — Philippians 2:12
“For to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain.” — Philippians 1:21
“Consider your own work, then you will have reason to boast…” — Galatians 6:4
“Let go of the trivial, cling to what matters.” — Proverbs-inspired paraphrase
“My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” — 2 Corinthians 12:9
“Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.” — Colossians 3:2
“Be content with what you have.” — Hebrews 13:5

10 Religious Jokes

Why didn’t the skeleton go to church? He had no body to go with.
What’s a pirate’s favorite book of the Bible? Arrrr-chippels of Paul!
Why don’t we tell secrets on a farm? Because the potatoes have eyes, the corn has ears, and the beans stalk!
How do you make holy water? Boil the hell out of it.
What kind of car does Jesus drive? A God-Zilla.
Why did the hawk sit on the church steeple? It was a bird of pray.
Who was the greatest financier in the Bible? Noah—he floated his stock while the whole world was in liquidation.
How long did Cain hate his brother? As long as he was Abel.
Where is the first tennis match mentioned in the Bible? When Joseph served in Pharaoh’s court.
Why did the computer go to confession? It had too many bytes.

10 Great People Sayings

“You must give everything to gain Christ.” – Saint Ignatius of Loyola
“God does not call the qualified; He qualifies the called.” – Alistair Begg
“The best way to destroy the work of Christ is to persecute it.” – Martin Luther
“Discipline is remembering what you want.” – David Campbell
“Our attachment to this world is the prison we need to escape.” – Thomas Merton
“He who is faithful with little will be faithful with much.” – Jesus Christ (paraphrase)
“Holiness consists simply in doing God’s will, and being just what God wants us to be.” – St. Therese of Lisieux
“The first step in sanctity is detachment from sin, and the second is detachment from ourselves.” – St. John Vianney
“If we are not for ourselves, who will be for us? And if we are only for ourselves, what are we?” – Hillel the Elder
“Faith is taking the first step even when you don’t see the whole staircase.” – Martin Luther King Jr.

Homily

The ancient Romans easily found a sufﬁcient ﬁgurative connection between commerce, theft, and eloquence to place merchants, thieves, and orators under one and the same deity the god Mercury. Whether this connection between merchants, thieves, and orators is correct or not, we leave it to you to judge. But in our day one thing is sure. Every one —business—person, thief, or orator; doctor, lawyer, rich man, poor man, beggar man, or thief — has to ﬁnd out if he is willing to pay the price to come ,under the god he says he serves.

The great crowds (v. 25) surrounding Jesus in today’s Gospel passage contained the exultant, sensation seeking people streaming from the streets and alleys of the towns —the poor, the crippled, and the blind (v. 21). They thought Jesus was on the way to an empire; he knew he was on the way to the cross. They thought discipleship had no costs; he, now on his way to Jerusalem to suffer and die, was aware of its demands.

He had to say something to put them straight. People had to know what they were getting themselves into. So he gave three conditions for following him — putting commitment to him above everything else, including family ties; maintaining self-control; and developing detachment from possessions. Those are the opposites, then and now, of worldly people — who go for lack of commitment, self-indulgence, and attachment to all you can lay your hands on.

To sift through the complex demands, both before Christ’s time and after, we need a wisdom from above. Today’s reading from the Book of Wisdom tells us that. At the time this book was written, about a hundred years before Christ’s birth, the Jewish community at Alexandria in Egypt, the place where it was written, lived in a world where different religions and philosophies were vying for converts. The devout Jew felt out of place in that world. To counter that feeling, this book taught that there was no need to envy other ways of life. Commitment to God, even when His plan lay beyond our understanding, is the true way to wisdom.

The name that had been connected with wisdom was King Solomon. The author of this book presents part of his version of Solomon’s prayer for wisdom (vv. 1-18). Solomon wanted to build a magniﬁcent Temple to God. The text suggests a question: How can anyone perform a task like that without that wisdom that was with God when He set about the work of creation? The answer given is that no one can arrive at God’s counsels without wisdom (W. 13—18).

Some would question Solomon’s wisdom on two grounds. First, he had 700 wives ‘and 300 concubines, and some men have problems with one wife! And second, his method of constructing the Temple was monumentally unwise. He funded the Temple’s construction with massive new taxes and forced his subjects into labour — but exempted his native southern region of Judah from both taxes and labour. This led the nation to split along its ancient north-south fault line into Judah in the south and Israel in the north.

With regard to the first of Jesus’ conditions for following him — putting commitment to him above everything — anyone who would become an intimate disciple must have the wisdom to prefer Jesus’ kingdom to his family, and even to his own life (v. 26). In return, the kingdom promises life more fully; it transforms the commitment into a new, personal fulﬁlment. Many people like the promise but not the price. Just as it is possible to be a bearer of lectures without being a student, a listener to homilies without being a deer of the word, and a taker without being a giver, so it is possible to be a listener to Jesus without being a committed follower.

Temporary enthusiasm isn’t enough. The true disciple can’t act on impulse, but only on a carefully considered programme of involvement. To teach that, Jesus told two stories. The ﬁrst, about a man who wanted to build a tower—overlook to protect his vineyard (W. 28-30), dealt with private life. The second, concerning a king about to march (vv, 31f), pertained to political life.

Concerning private life today, everyone knows that if a youth wants to become a doctor or a lawyer, he or she must be committed to long hours of study. Concerning public and political life, examples of failure of wise commitment abound. In the closing days of World War II, for example, one of the reasons why the Soviet Union was able to occupy Eastern Europe and cause the long Cold War was that the Allied planners for the Normandy invasion hadn’t wisely committed General George S. Patton’s Third Army beyond the French beachhead, and the army ran out of gas and ammunition halfway across Europe Currently commitment leaves much to be desired. On a personal level, we don’t seem to realize sufficiently that commitment is the foundation, the bedrock of any genuinely loving relationship. Anyone who is truly concerned for the spiritual growth of another knows, consciously or instinctively, that he or she can signiﬁcantly foster that growth only through a relationship of constancy. While deep commitment doesn’t guarantee the success of the relationship, it does help more than any other factor to assure it.

On the level of societal commitment, daily we see pictures of people throughout the world, especially children, so starved because of wars or natural disasters that they have arms like splinters and ribs pressing out of near-transparent ﬂesh; infants with beads and bellies grotesquely large for their shrunken torsos; mothers numb with grief waiting for their babies to die in camps that look like garbage dumps; and seemingly weightless little bodies being carried to shacks that pass for morgues. In other situations of random and massive slaughter, people step over corpses that lie in the streets of mined cities.

In what passes for the international community, shouldn’t it be possible to be committed to plans such that when these horrors occur we can immediately come to the aid of the distressed and be present for them? In our national community, shouldn’t we be more committed to alleviate the human victims of hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes, and other tragedies? Are we sincere about our commitment? That word “sincere” means to be “without wax” {sine cera). Ancient actors’ masks were made of wax.

About Jesus’ second and third conditions for following him —self-control and detachment — today’s Second Reading makes good points. It is the only reading in all the liturgy from this shortest (25 W), very touching, and very personal letter of St Paul. It illustrates a self-control and detachment that are not cold and aloof, but warm. Addressed to a rich Christian slave-owner named Philemon, it is a compassionate intercession by one Christian, Paul, in behalf of another, Philemon’s slave Onesimus.

To understand this reading, it helps to know the story behind it. Because there were at the time ’60 million slaves in the Roman Empire, fear caused the citizenry to make the laws concerning them strict. Runaway slaves could be punished by torture, death, or both. Philemon’s slave Onesimus had stolen something from his master and run away. Onesimus was therefore in deep trouble. Now in jail in Ephesus, he was to be returned to Philemon as soon as possible. Anyone who harboured him would be liable for any loss that his master suffered.

It happened that Onesimus was put into the same jail as Paul. Paul converted, instructed, and baptized him, and the two had become close. That made it necessary for Paul to do some assessing. Should he, for example, condemn the very institution of slavery? He couldn’t accomplish much by doing that. He was in jail, and condemning slavery would only make matters worse. Should he command Philemon as a fellow Christian to accept his servant Onesimus back? He clearly hadn’t the authority to do that.

No, Paul’s appeal to Philemon would follow the advice he gave elsewhere, as in his “hymn to love” (1 Cor 13). In the 25 verses of his letter to Philemon there are four references to love, plus two to Paul’s heart. Paul appealed to Philemon to look at his slave in a new way (v.10). By baptizing him, Paul had given Onesimus spiritual birth; the Jews looked upon spiritual birth as being more important than physical birth. For Christians, baptism establishes a new and radical relationship between Christians before which all others, including that of master and slave, give way in favour of a new kinship in Christ.

Paul wasn’t a fuzzy—headed bleeding heart denying the wrong Onesimus had done. And though Paul, a lonely missionary, would have liked to keep Onesimus for himself (v. 13),- he deferentially acknowledged the master‘s right, and would do nothing without Philemon’s consent (v. 14). Christianity doesn’t have as a purpose to help people run away from their past. Christians are to face their past and overcome it. Christianity isn’t escape from self. It is conquest of self.

In the entire affair, Paul saw the hand of providence (v. 15). This was because both slave and master were now through baptism adopted sons of God, and therefore brothers (v. 16). Considering Philemon’s high social status, this tender and compassionate appeal may have been hard for him to recognize — but then he, and all good Christians, are expected to be open to new vistas. Although it wasn’t until the nineteenth century that the human race showed that it realized that slavery is the evil thing that it is, slavery’s death-knell had been sounded when a slave-owner was requested to treat his slave as a brother on the grounds of religious love.

All of us who face the invitation of God’s grace have to balance the costs and make decisions about our commitment, our self-control, and our detachment. In the process, we have to ask hard questions. Are the demands of the code of morality that accompanies the Christian creed too hard for us? Would it be better to follow the pleasures of self-indulgence? In the tension between the wisdom of this world and the wisdom of God, should we compromise with a presiding deity who, like the Roman god Mercury, will cover all our options? In answering, let us remember that, in the end, our choices form us. And the reason why wise people still choose to follow Jesus, despite the price, is that, all things considered, that means choosing life over death.

Prayers of the Faithful

For the Church—that we may embrace fully the cost of discipleship, offering our lives in loving obedience to Christ… Lord, hear us.
For our leaders—that they demonstrate self-control and plain devotion to the Gospel, resisting worldly pressures… Lord, hear us.
For those struggling with attachment to comfort and security—that they find freedom in trusting God’s providence… Lord, hear us.
For our loved ones—that our witness of detachment and sacrifice may draw them closer to Christ… Lord, hear us.
For those tempted by distractions—that the Holy Spirit grants clarity to discern the path of commitment and true freedom… Lord, hear us.
For phasing out selfishness—that our community may grow in humility, generosity, and Christ-centered living… Lord, hear us.
For the marginalized and poor—that we may learn detachment and solidarity with those in need… Lord, hear us.
For persevering in faith—that even in trials, we willingly bear our cross, trusting God’s wisdom… Lord, hear us.
For vocations—that some may answer God’s call to consecrated lives marked by radical surrender… Lord, hear us.
For ourselves—that we may daily choose God above all, counting the cost and joyfully carrying our cross… Lord, hear us.

Conclusion

The Christian life is costly—but its reward is priceless. We are called to emulate God’s unwavering commitment, exercise self-control over distractions, and practice detachment from all that competes for our allegiance. The journey demands more than belief; it demands alignment of our hearts with Christ. May the Passion that shapes His love become the fire that molds our souls.