Year C / Ordinary Time / Week 23 / Sunday
Readings: Wisdom 9.13-18b / Psalm 90.3-4, 5-6, 12-13, 14, 17 (R/v 1) / Philomeon 9-10, 12-17 / Luke 14.25-33
Let us begin with this little puzzle of words— the letters: N-O-W-H-E-R-E.
Some will read it as “Nowhere.” Others as “Now Here.” Aren’t both how we experience God at times?
There are days when God feels nowhere—when our prayers seem unanswered, when our hearts cry out, “Where are you, God? I can’t see you. I can’t hear you. I can’t feel your presence. Maybe it’s because I am unworthy of your love.”
And yet, here we are, aren’t we? Gathered at this Eucharistic table. Here to listen to God’s Word. Here to be nourished by Christ, the Bread of Life. Here we come, aware of our faults and failings, but still coming as children of God, as his beloved.
That is why we feel puzzled, sometimes even distressed, when God seems absent. We find ourselves caught between faith and doubt, between trusting God and wondering whether God is really with us. It is like the King in the musical The King and I who cried out, “Tiz a puzzlement!”
Our first reading captures this puzzlement well: “What man indeed can know the intentions of God? Who can divine the will of the Lord?”
Isn’t that our struggle? We want to figure God out. We want to know why things happen the way they do. And when we cannot make sense of it, we project our own confusion onto God, turning Him into a problem to be solved.
But maybe God does not need us to understand every thought or intention. Maybe God simply asks us to experience His presence and give thanks. Maybe God is simpler than we imagine.
What makes this possible? Wisdom. The first reading assures us that God sends wisdom from heaven to guide us. Wisdom is the Spirit’s quiet voice helping us take the next step, pointing us toward salvation. Wise are we to admit we can’t do this but for the graciousness of God who does – for us.
Look at Paul in our second reading. He is dealing with a very messy situation: Onesimus, a runaway slave, has become a Christian under Paul’s care. Legally, he must return to his master, Philemon, who may well punish him. But Paul sees something deeper.
With God’s wisdom, Paul no longer sees Onesimus as a slave but as a brother in Christ. With God’s wisdom, Paul dares to write Philemon, urging reconciliation. With God’s wisdom, Paul places his hope in Christ working through broken human relationships.
Do you see what happened? In the mess of betrayal, slavery, and possible revenge, Paul discovers that God is not “nowhere.” God is “now here.” Present. Active. Laboring for reconciliation and peace.
How often have we, too, discovered God in our struggles? In disappointments, setbacks, even in the surprises of life—moments when, against all odds, God’s goodness breaks through? Those are the moments we let go, let God lead, and allow divine wisdom to guide us.
We hear this as Jesus teaches about discipleship using two parables. A builder who must count the cost before starting a tower. A king who must weigh his chances before going to war. Both are about discernment—about seeing clearly before making a choice.
He wants us to know that discipleship requires wisdom to choose, because following him has a cost. And the cost is real: “Anyone who does not carry his cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.”
That cross is more than our personal sufferings. It is the daily work of putting God first. It is letting go of possessions, attachments, and even relationships when they prevent us from loving God wholeheartedly.
This is why Jesus uses shocking language—saying we must “hate” father, mother, wife, children, even our own lives. He is not telling us to despise our loved ones. Rather, he is saying: nothing, no one, not even family, can come before God. Only when God is first can we truly love others freely, generously, and unselfishly.
This is the wisdom of the Cross: it orders our loves rightly, so that God’s love flows through us to others.
The Cross has a vertical beam and a horizontal beam. One reaches upward to God; the other stretches outward to humanity. And we stand at the intersection of both. We are earthly and heavenly, human and divine, weak yet graced.
To live as disciples is to live at that intersection. One hand holds on to the struggles of life, while the other reaches toward God in hope. We carry contradictions, but wisdom allows us to carry them in faith.
When we accept this, we’ll realise that God is not absent. God is not “nowhere.” God is “now here,” walking with us; He is Jesus carrying the Cross with us, and leading us home.
Our earthly life is a pilgrimage to God. And the spiritual life Jesus calls us to live makes it a journey of integration—of making whole what is broken, uniting the human with the divine. This is what salvation means.
But it is not easy. Along the way, we thirst and ache for love. Sometimes those closest to us hurt us. Sometimes we feel alone. Sometimes things don't work out the way we want. Yet divine wisdom always points us to Jesus who shows us the way home to God.
So how do we live this out? By spending time with Jesus. We cannot be his disciples if we do not know him, and we cannot know him if we do not pray. In prayer, we bring before him our parents, our children, our friends, our worries, our hopes. In prayer, the Spirit whispers wisdom into our hearts.
This wisdom helps us see life differently: not as “God is nowhere,” but as “God is now here.” Therefore we’re not abandoned, as we are accompanied in our confusion. For the crosses we carry, especially, those contradictions like "I know God is good but God doesn’t answer my prayers," make us wiser—not yet or just what we want but how God remains present, still caring for our daily needs to stay alive and be fulfilled simply, daily.
So today, Jesus asks us: Will you let go and let God lead? Will you allow wisdom to guide you? Will you carry the Cross with me?
If we dare to say yes, we will find we are not alone. God is beside us—guiding us, loving us, leading us home.
So let us go forth from this Eucharist saying, “truly, here and now, God is with us.” Amen.*
*English translations of the word “amen” include "verily", "truly", "it is true", and "let it be so"
Preached at the IJ Sisters and Collaborators Retreat
photo: ©adrian danker, 2023, ‘heavenward,’ chapel at seven hills, jesuit vineyard, mclaren vale, south australia
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