Sunday 7 September 2025
23e Sunday During the Year – Year C
Homily by Father Emmanuel Schwab

Today's readings:
1st reading: Wisdom 9,13-18
Psaume : 89 (90),3-4, 5-6,12-13,14.17abc
2rd reading: Philemon 9b-10.12-17
Gospel: Luke 14,25:33-XNUMX

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“Who would have known your will, if you had not given Wisdom and sent your Holy Spirit from above?”, says the Book of Wisdom. The Holy Spirit was given at Pentecost; he has been at work in our lives ever since we received the sacraments of Christian initiation, and in particular the sacrament of Confirmation, which is, in each of our lives, the event of Pentecost. This Holy Spirit enlightens our intelligence so that we may progressively understand, as far as human weakness allows, the mystery of God, enter into it and contemplate it; and the Holy Spirit strengthens our will—I confess I prefer the verb—strengthens our “will” so that we may do what we understand to be God’s will. It is in the light of the gift of his Spirit that we must try to understand this Gospel.

Whoever comes to me and does not hate his father or mother […] cannot be my disciple. […] Whoever does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple. […] Whoever does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple..

Can we, under these conditions, claim to be disciples of Jesus?

Amidst these declarations of the impossibility of being a disciple of Jesus are two little parables: 

The parable of the man who wants to build a tower; Jesus' advice is that if he doesn't have the means, it's better not to start. 

And then the one who goes to war against another king: if he is inferior, it is better that he tries to make peace before being massacred. These two parables invite us to give up acting… Don’t go and build the tower, you won’t succeed. Don’t go and fight… fight who? It seems to me that these two parables speak to us precisely about what it is to be a disciple: with Jesus it is about building the Kingdom, building the Kingdom, building the Church. “You are Peter and on this rock I will build MY Church,” says Jesus (Mt 2:16,18). Jesus does not say YOU will build my ChurchMore I will build my Church. And he doesn't say You will build YOUR ChurchMore Je will build MY ChurchWe are called to work on this construction, both as a living stone and also as a builder.

And then the Lord calls us to wage spiritual warfare against the enemy, the devil or Satan, who is stronger than us. Remember the little parable of the strong man: the strong man who is secure, and one stronger than him comes along and overcomes him and takes everything that was in his house. The devil is stronger than any of us. But Jesus, in his humanity, won the victory. 

These two parables invite us to renounce building the Kingdom of God and leading the spiritual battle on our own. This is what Thérèse will discover throughout her own spiritual life: that it is impossible for her to respond to God's love with her own strength. 

You know, my Mother, that I have always desired to be a saint, but alas! I have always noticed, when I have compared myself to the saints, that there is between them and me the same difference that exists between a mountain whose summit is lost in the heavens and the dark grain of sand trampled under the feet of passers-by; instead of being discouraged, I said to myself: The Good Lord cannot inspire unrealizable desires, I can therefore, despite my smallness, aspire to holiness; to magnify myself is impossible, I must bear with myself as I am with all my imperfections; but I want to seek the means of going to Heaven by a small, straight, very short way, a small, completely new way. (MsC 2v)

And then she will talk about this image of the elevator, she will look for the elevator in the Holy Scriptures and she will conclude:

This elevator is your arms, O Jesus. 

Let us look at a little child in his little bed who cannot get out of this bed by himself, and let us look at his father or mother who arrives to take the child out of the bed. It is the arms of the parents that will carry the child, then put him on the ground. But what does the child do? He stretches out his little arms himself and lets himself be taken. He abandons himself to his parents' arms; he goes along with the movement. Getting out of his little bed is impossible. For him, it is impossible, but not for his parents. Well, this is what Thérèse understands and this is what we really need to understand: we must renounce acting on our own, to let ourselves be done by Christ by cooperating in his action. I do not have the means to build the Kingdom, to build the Church of Christ. But I can offer myself for this, so that through me, with me and in me the Lord may build his Church. 

I can fight the spiritual battle provided that I allow the Lord, through his Spirit, to fight in me. That is to say, I must renounce all my possessions and enter into this movement of Christ's love which is the mystery of the Cross, so that the Lord can act through me.

Ah! how contrary to the sentiments of nature are the teachings of Jesus! exclaims Therese. Without the help of his grace it would be impossible not only to put them into practice but also to understand them. (MsC 12v)

This is why I began by emphasizing that the Holy Spirit was given to us so that we might understand what the Lord asks of us and so that we might respond to it. 

But I am full of weakness, I would like to, but I see the weight of my whole life... 

Ah! Lord, Thérèse always says, I know that you command nothing impossible, you know better than I my weakness, my imperfection, you know well that I could never love my sisters as you love them, if you yourself, O my Jesus, did not still love them in me. (MsC 12v)

What Saint Paul asks Philemon in the second reading that we heard is to welcome back Onesimus, who was his slave, who fled, who met Paul in prison, Paul baptized him, he sends him back to Philemon, saying: welcome him no longer as a slave but as a brother.

And Philemon will have to enter into this charity of God. 

You know well that I could never love my sisters as you love them, if you yourself, O my Jesus, did not still love them in me. It is because you wanted to grant me this grace that you made a new commandment. – Oh! how I love it since it gives me the assurance that your will is to love in me all those whom you command me to love!…

But how can we live all this? The key is always the same: union with Jesus. So that Jesus can act by me, with me and in me, I must learn to live through Jesus, with Him and in HimYou will recognize the words of the great doxology that concludes the Eucharistic Prayer: "Through Jesus, with Him and in Him, to you, God the Father almighty, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, all honor and glory for ever and ever." It is the movement of our offering that we come to live by celebrating the Eucharist. 

We offer ourselves to the Father through Jesus, with Him, and in Him. For what purpose? So that Jesus can act through us, with us, and in us. 

In her trial of faith and hope, in her darkness, Therese says: [Jesus] knows well that while I do not have the enjoyment of Faith, I try at least to do its works. I believe I have made more acts of faith in the last year than in my entire life. At each new opportunity for combat, when my enemy comes to provoke me, I behave bravely, knowing that it is cowardly to fight a duel, I turn my back on my adversary without deigning to look him in the face; but I run to my Jesus, I tell Him that I am ready to shed the last drop of my blood to confess that there is a Heaven. (MsC 7r)

This is what it means to be a disciple of Jesus. It means running to him knowing that by myself, by my own strength, by my own efforts, I can neither build the Kingdom nor lead the spiritual battle. That I can do it only through Jesus, with Him and in Him and that if there is one primary effort to make in our lives, it is to take great care of our personal relationship with Jesus. And it is a relationship of love... and I will end with that.

To act out of love, out of pure love, Thérèse understands that ultimately I must not be able to look back on myself. So she writes to Céline:

What an ineffable joy to carry our cross weakly. […]

The grain of sand wants to get to work, without joy, without courage, without strength, and it is all these titles which will make the undertaking easier for it, it wants to work for Love. (LT 82 to Céline – February 28, 1889)

Well, let us ask this grace of the Holy Spirit, who is none other than the love of the Father and the Son, let us ask this grace of the Holy Spirit, who pours out the charity of God into our hearts.

Amen