Follow me, and let the dead bury their dead

1 JULY (Mt 8, 18-22)

The law of the discipleship of Christ Jesus is clothed with a very precise, exact and perennial modality. Living the same relationship that exists between the sheep and the shepherd. It is the shepherd the one who decides, establishes, wants, orders and commands. The sheep is called only to follow the shepherd, to walk in his presence. A single moment of separation from the shepherd and the sheep is already lost. It is out of the dominion of the master over it. This truth was revealed by the Lord to Abraham. This does not have to worry either for the present or for the future. He just needs to take care of walking before the Lord.

When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared to him and said: “I am God the Almighty. Walk in my presence and be blameless. Between you and me I will establish my covenant, and I will multiply you exceedingly.” When Abram prostrated himself, God continued to speak to him: “My covenant with you is this: you are to become the father of a host of nations. No longer shall you be called Abram; your name shall be Abraham, for I am making you the father of a host of nations. I will render you exceedingly fertile; I will make nations of you; kings shall stem from you. I will maintain my covenant with you and your descendants after you throughout the ages as an everlasting pact, to be your God and the God of your descendants after you. I will give to you and to your descendants after you the land in which you are now staying, the whole land of Canaan, as a permanent possession; and I will be their God” (Gen 17,1-8).

When you decide to walk in front of Jesus Christ, to follow him, what Ruth said to Naomi must be accomplished. You must assume everything of the other, even religion and the very God. You cannot follow anyone, living each his religion and his piety.

Elimelech, the husband of Naomi, died, and she was left with her two sons, who married Moabite women, one named Orpah, the other Ruth. When they had lived there about ten years, both Mahlon and Chilion died also, and the woman was left with neither her two sons nor her husband. She then made ready to go back from the plateau of Moab because word reached her there that the Lord had visited his people and given them food. She and her two daughters-in-law left the place where they had been living. Then as they were on the road back to the land of Judah, 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 1,3-17).
A perfect communion and a holy discipleship. One leads the way and the other follows him. Jesus precedes and the disciple advances in the footsteps of the Master. The footprint is his only way.

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.”

If Jesus does not pass through a street, even the disciple must not pass. The journey of the Master is also the journey of the disciple. Not two journeys, but only one. Not two paths, but only one. Not two separate and parallel lives, but only one.

Virgin Mary, Mother of the Redemption, Angels and Saints teach us the true discipleship.