TEACHER, I WILL FOLLOW YOU WHEREVER YOU GO
Am 2,6-10; Ps 49; Mt 8,18-22
2 JULY
A man manifests to Jesus the desire to follow him: “Master, I will follow you wherever you go”. Evidently he does not know where Jesus is headed: to Mount Golgotha to be Crucified. This is the landing of his pilgrimage to our land. The Master answers him that the birds of the sky have their nests, the foxes their holes, but the Son of man has no place to lay his head. Whoever wants to follow Jesus must take his walking stick because with him we know where we start from, but we do not know where we are going, because He is moved at all times by the Holy Spirit. What Jesus said to Nicodemus about the Holy Spirit is valid for him before than anybody else.
“Amen, amen, I say to you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit. What is born of flesh is flesh and what is born of spirit is spirit. Do not be amazed that I told you, ‘You must be born from above.’ The wind blows where it wills, and you can hear the sound it makes, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes; so it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit” (Jn 3,5-8).
With Jesus we go far beyond the very profession of love made by Ruth towards her mother-in-law.
Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, “Go back, each of you, to your mother’s house! May the Lord be kind to you as you were to the departed and to me! May the Lord grant each of you a husband and a home in which you will find rest.” She kissed them good-bye, but they wept with loud sobs, and told her they would return with her to her people. “Go back, my daughters!” said Naomi. “Why should you come with me? Have I other sons in my womb who may become your husbands? Go back, my daughters! Go, for I am too old to marry again. And even if I could offer any hopes, or if tonight I had a husband or had borne sons, would you then wait and deprive yourselves of husbands until those sons grew up? No, my daughters! my lot is too bitter for you, because the Lord has extended his hand against me.” Again they sobbed aloud and wept; and Orpah kissed her mother-in-law good-bye, but Ruth stayed with her. “See now!” she said, “your sister-in-law has gone back to her people and her god. Go back after your sister-in-law!” But Ruth said, “Do not ask me to abandon or forsake you! for wherever you go I will go, wherever you lodge I will lodge, your people shall be my people, and your God my God. Wherever you die I will die, and there be buried. May the Lord do so and so to me, and more besides, if aught but death separates me from you!” (Rut 1,8-17).
Her mother-in-law is returning to Bethlehem, to the house she had left. Jesus is also returning to the eternal house He left to come to the earth for our redemption, but He will have to go through the stairs of the cross. If this man wants to follow Jesus, he must forget his mind, heart, desires, body, will, aspirations, vices and every comfort of this world and set out behind Christ. The life of Jesus must be his life, without any difference. He must be delivered to the will of God.
When Jesus saw a crowd around him, he gave orders to cross to the other side. A scribe approached and said to him, “Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go.” Jesus answered him, “Foxes have dens and birds of the sky have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to rest his head.” Another of (his) disciples said to him, “Lord, let me go first and bury my father.” But Jesus answered him, “Follow me, and let the dead bury their dead.”
One of the disciples asks Jesus for permission to go first to bury his father. First he fulfils the obligations of the human tradition. Then he will be ready to follow Jesus. The answer is immediate: “Follow me and let the dead bury their dead”. The following of Jesus declares null every tradition and custom of the earth. Between Jesus and the disciple there must be no other thing except following him and walking behind the Master. When the sequel hinders even a tiny thought, it must be abandoned, left. If one thought intervenes between the disciple and the Master, the following is not perfect. If then thoughts are added to thoughts, it leads to the end and dies.
Faithful Virgin, Angels and Saints make us true disciples of Jesus according to the divine will.