Bottom line: three points regarding today's Gospel about the cost of discipleship.

I am in Ashland OR this weekend for the Shakespeare Festival. While I may not be giving a homily I note three points regarding today's Gospel about the cost of discipleship:

1) Jesus must come before any human attachment: parent, wife, child, brother, friend.

2) Expect suffering - humiliation, physical and spiritual anguish - in a word, the cross.

3) A disciple renounces his possession, that is, places them at disposal of Jesus and his Church (e.g. Acts 2:44-45).

"Renouncing possessions" is a particular challenge for us Catholics. Fr. Michael White and Tom Corcoran in ChurchMoney observe: "Catholics give at a the lowest level of giving among all Christians. All of them. We're in last place - by a lot. Catholics give at about half the rate of Protestants and a quarter (or less) the rate of Evangelicals. That's a long-standing problem - in fact a historic one. And it's getting worse..."

We can't lay all the blame at the clergy abuse scandal with its subsequent bankruptcies and payoffs. "The economic consequences of the current crisis will most certainly be significant, though its full impact as of this writing, has yet to be understood. However, the giving problem long predated these developments, and it does not seem to have escalated everywhere in tandem with fresh revelations, at least in the experience of most parishes". (ChurchMoney, p. 10)

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