23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time: September 6/7, 2025

During the early years of the 20th century, Bill Borden, of Borden Dairy fame, turned his back on his family’s great fortune to become a missionary in China.

He only got as far as Egypt where, still in his 20s, he died of typhoid fever. With his dream unfulfilled, he still wrote right before his death of his decision: “No reserves, no retreats, no regrets.”

After teaching us both about humility and service during dinner at the home of a leading Pharisee last Sunday, Jesus is again on the road to Jerusalem, this time with great crowds accompanying him.

Jesus knows where this road will lead him, to suffering and death. And he knows the price he will pay, his very life. He knows once he is within the gates of Jerusalem, there can be no reserves, no retreats, and no regrets. Jesus knows the cost of remaining faithful to

God’s will, He just wants to make sure the crowds know where the road is leading, and the cost to them if they continue to follow him. And so, the two parables included in the gospel today counsel us that if we are going to proclaim ourselves followers of Jesus Christ, we had better pause to think long and hard about what we are getting ourselves into.

For once Jesus has chosen us as his own, he will not back off until the bond of union is fully realized.

He will be as relentless as a king who has 10,000 soldiers going up against our 20,000: Christ will do whatever it takes to fulfill the terms of the covenant into which we have entered: there can be no reserves, no retreats, no regrets. In fact, few of us probably see clearly when we begin to follow Jesus what the cost will actually be. We take on being Christian with the attitude of a person who sets out to build a tower, we understand

discipleship as a noble task that can be accomplished by the application of sufficient sweat and skill and sacrifice. While some good may be accomplished in this way, sooner or later we discover that we are incapable of finishing the tower that we set out to build.

Rather than being a tragedy, this is the humbling moment when we can begin to learn the true character of the relationship into which Jesus has called us. Becoming a disciple, it turns out, isn’t so much something WE DO and accomplish, but what JESUS

DOES and accomplishes within us. What Jesus does, primarily, is to begin to open us to experience a love so profound that it re-orients EVERY dimension of our lives. Our settled assumptions about our relationships, our possessions, even our most intimate identity as

individuals and collectively as the Body of Christ, all are put in question.

Once we have experienced the treasure of this love, God’s unconditional love for us, life is forever changed, and we dare not let anything stand in the was of its fulfillment.

This re-orientation process is what confronts Philemon in our second reading. Since this is the only time we read from this short letter of St. Paul at a Sunday Mass, perhaps it demands some time of explanation. Onesimus, a Greek name meaning useless,

was Philemon’s slave. Onesimus, quite contrary to the law of the time, ran away from his master and made his way to Rome.

In Rome he meets up with Paul who is in prison, and Onesimus, contrary to his name, becomes very USEFUL to Paul, he becomes Paul currier, keeping his messages and his writing flowing from prison out into the world. Onesimus, quite taken with Paul, converts to Christianity and wants to stay with Paul.  Paul, however, knowing that the law requires a

slave to stay with their master, convinces Onesimus to return to Philemon, where he could possibly face death as his punishment for running away. Through this letter, Paul invites Philemon to fully live his discipleship in Jesus Christ. He challenges Philemon not just to accept Onesimus back as a slave WITHOUT punishment, but also to embrace him as a beloved brother in Christ.

In faith, hope, and love, Onesimus is to be welcomed by his master with the same affection and honor that would be offered to an esteemed fellow Christian, tough stuff! Scripture scholars say it is unclear whether Paul is implying that Philemon ought to set Onesimus free — what is crystal clear, though, is that Philemon is being called to a profound renunciation of the entire set of attitudes and behaviors that have shaped his identity as a member of a wealthy, powerful and slave-holding elite. IF Philemon accepted this radical change, he undoubtedly experienced both the astonishing joy of Christian community, but also quite possibly the deep suffering of misunderstanding and probable rejection by friends, family, and certainly his fellow slave-owners.

Most likely that misunderstanding and rejection was NOT what Philemon had planned when he set out to build his tower of Christian discipleship.

Jesus wants us all to know that discipleship is costly. It may not cost us our lives outright, certainly it will not cost us our slaves, unless we use that to indicate our addictions — but it just might well cost us our friends, our family, our neighbors and co-workers. Following Jesus will cost us in some way: it will cost us our plans, our wills, our selfish desires.

Jesus’ standard has not changed after all these years: “whoever does not carry their own cross and come after me, cannot be my disciple” Instead of trying to control our own lives and destiny, we have to them over to Jesus.

Someone once said: “Salvation is free, but it certainly isn’t cheap.”  It cost Jesus his life, and it will cost us as well. But is there anything greater, or more fulfilling than to turn over our lives and be given the gift of eternal life?

If we truly follow Christ, then at life’s end we will be able to say as did Bill Borden: “no reserves, no retreats, and no regrets.”