FRIDAY, JULY 11, 2008 - FOURTEENTH WEEK OF ORDINARY TIME

HOSEA 14:2-10
          

    Thus says the LORD: Return, 0 Israel, to the LORD, your God; you have collapsed through your guilt. Take with you words, and return to the LORD; Say to him, “Forgive all iniquity, and receive what is good, that we may render as offerings the bullocks from our stalls. Assyria will not save us, nor shall we have horses to mount; We shall say no more, ‘Our God to the work of our hands; for in you the orphan finds compassion’ I will heal their defection, says the LORD, I will love them freely; for my wrath is turned away from them. I will be like the dew for Israel: he shall blossom like the lily; He shall strike root like the  Lebanon cedar, and put forth his shoots. His splendor shall be like the olive tree and his fragrance like the Lebanon cedar. Again they shall dwell in his shade and raise grain; They shall blossom like the vine, and his fame shall be like the wine of Lebanon. Ephraim! What more has he to do with idols? I have humbled him, but I will prosper him. “I am like a verdant cypress tree"  because of me you bear fruit! Let him who is wise understand these things; let him who is prudent know them. Straight are the paths of the LORD, in them the just walk, but sinners stumble in them.

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MATTHEW 10:16-23
        
         Jesus said to his disciples: “I am sending you out like sheep among wolves. You must be clever as snakes and innocent as doves.  Be on your guard with respect to others. They will hale you into court, they will flog you in their synagogues. You will be brought to trial before rulers and kings, to give witness before them and the Gentiles on my account. When they hand you over, do not worry about what you will say or how you will say it. When the hour comes, you will be given what you are to say. You yourselves will not be the speakers; the Spirit of your Father will be speaking in you.
         “Brother will hand over brother to death, and the father his child; children will turn against parents and have them put to death.  You will be hated by all on account of me. But whoever holds out till the end will escape death. When they persecute you in one town, flee to the next. I solemnly assure you, you will not have covered the towns of Israel before the Son of Man comes.”                         
        
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Dietriich Bonhoeffer, a Lutheran Minister who was executed at the age of 39 on direct orders from Adolph Hitler, wrote a book titled; THE COST OF DISCIPLESHIP.  In the first chapter he writes:
         "Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, Communion without confession, absolution without personal confession.  Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate...
         "...Costly grace is the gospel which must be sought again and again, the gift which must be asked for, the door at which a man must knock."

Bonhoeffer could have been writing to Catholics in the twenty-first century instead of Lutherans in 1937.  It seems to me that many Catholics today want cheap grace.  After a homily I gave once in which I thought I was preaching the Good News, I received a letter of complaint.  In the letter the person criticized me for making them feel guilty.  "I come to church to feel good, not to be made to feel guilty," I was told.

Jesus never told his disciples that they would be proclaiming a feel-good Gospel.  He told quite the opposite.  He told them that they would be hated, put into prison, and even put to death because they preached the Gospel.  History proved Jesus' prophesy correct.  Today we find it easier to live and let live.  We try not to make waves by not voicing disapproval when confronted with public sin.  We don't stand up and be counted when our society calls evil good and good evil.  We know too well that we, too, will be hated if we were to preach the Gospel too clearly with our lives.  It seems today that many Catholics indeed want "forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, Communion without confession, absolution without personal confession."  We want "grace without discipleship, grace without the cross."  We want redemption without even mentioning sin.  We want salvation without the cost of discipleship.

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Lord Jesus, your cross, the cross you want me to carry, can seem to heavy at times.  Yet I know that you carry it with me.  Keep me ever focused on your gift of salvation so that I may never shrink from the cost of being your disciple.