Do you want to be a disciple? Renounce everything else, with no reservation, no regrets! These words summarize the challenge and difficult task to say, “Yes” each day to the Father’s will in the example of Jesus, His Son. This is the same Jesus who gave us the law of love, and yet He wants us to be open first and foremost to the will of His Father before our own or even fathers, mothers, wives and children.

These are hard sayings. Jesus would make a poor politician. He doesn’t tell us things we like to hear. He tells it like it is. He tells us it will not always be easy if we go with Him and be His disciple. Faith is not like an insurance policy. As long as you pay the premium you will be protected, you can’t get along with the minimum coverage by saying you are a Christian. The story of ‘The tower half-built’ is an image of our spiritual lives when they are built on half hearted efforts. To gain Heaven we need to surrender ourselves to the greatest goal that we pray about in the Lord’s prayer- “thy will be done.” If we are going to follow Jesus, and state He is truly our leader in faith, He must be more important to us than everyone and everything in our lives.

An elderly man was told that he needed an operation. He insisted that his son-in-law, a famous surgeon, perform the operation. On the operating table in the hospital as he was given anesthesia, the man asked to speak to the son –in- law. “Doctor, he said, I have complete confidence in you. Don’t be nervous, do your best and just remember if it doesn’t go well and something happens to me- your mother-in-law is moving in with you!” The pressure was on and so it is on each one of us as we listen to and strive to live this Gospel message this week.

On the day you were baptized, the priest, your parents and all present made the sign of the cross on your forehead. You were signed, sealed, tattooed, and branded with the cross. It is only as we get older that we realize what it truly means to take up that cross and follow in the footsteps of Jesus Christ each day. As this is a new school year and a new beginning so the challenge to truly say YES takes on a new dimension in our faith life. Christians have always had to face this dilemma. Some have been asked to give up their life in this world in order to hold onto their faith and we call them martyrs. To lose everything rather than to lose Jesus is the final line of our defense.

A man went to a psychiatrist and said, “Ever since I was a child, I’ve had a real fear of someone under my bed. Every time I go to bed I think there’s somebody under it. I’m scared. I think I’m going crazy.” The psychiatrist said, “Just put yourself in my hands for a year. Come once a week and I will help you. It will cost only $l25 a visit. The man said to the doctor, “I’ll’ sleep on it.” A few months later the doctor met the man on the street and asked him, “Why did you not come for future visits?” The man replied, “Well at $l25 a visit I talked to a friend and he offered a cheaper solution and so I cut the legs off the bed and there is nobody under there now!”

Take time to volunteer your time, effort or talent by a Yes for the Lord and others this week and in these final months of 20l0. See by the heart and let that light that never fades grow in your being and let the spiritual reign. As Mary was the first to share in the fullness of eternal life, it is a time to realize that God’s plan for all of us is the same, but He gives us the free choice and decision to say Yes and to volunteer. What will you do?

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