"The Cost of Discipleship"
Fr. George Wertin
Sunday, March 9th, 2003

There are various ways to define the word ‘discipline.’ It can mean a follower, a devotee, or a pupil. I am reminded of the story told to me by a friend who worked in the admission office of a small liberal arts college. She was reviewing an application form filled out by a candidate. The question was “Are you a leader, and if so how have you demonstrated this?” The response read: “I am not a leader, but I am a very good follower.” Well, the candidate was eventually selected for the freshman class and my friend wrote a special letter of acceptance stating: “Congratulations! You have been accepted into a freshman class of 482 leaders and one follower!”

To be a follower doesn’t necessarily mean we are called to be compliant and docile. It can be okay to be a follower. But the question is: whom do we follow and how. We can’t all be leaders all the time. Is it better to scorn being a follower than to become a disciple of someone who can show us insight and wisdom? - someone who has already chartered the path we intend to follow?

We chose our Lenten theme this year in response to Sr. Joan Chittester’s remarkable talk to the Women’s Ordination Conference in Dublin a year and a half ago. Her presentation was entitled “Discipleship for a Priestly People in a Priestless Church.” In other words, she chose to focus on the essential elements: we are all called to be disciples. We are all called to an authentic ministry. If we do this the Church will be transformed and we will all find a radical equality as followers of Jesus. We must break new ground. She quotes the Zen poet Basho who wrote: “I do not seek to follow in the footsteps of those of old; I seek the things they sought.” That is authentic and challenging discipleship! We are not slavish followers who follow mechanically or by rote. We have to adapt the message of Jesus - even as we reclaim it.

But there is a cost to discipleship. It is a genuine investment. It requires a commitment - one that we are invited to renew this Lent. The term “The Cost of Discipleship” comes from the title of a book by the German Evangelical (Lutheran) theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer. He was a remarkable German theologian and pastor in the first half of the 20th century. He was a respected teacher and a gifted pastor. He was teaching in New York in 1939. He talked about ‘religionless Christianity’ and about God as “the beyond in our midst.” However, he was still steeped in a very fall and redemption oriented theology. The drums of Hitler’s war were pulsating in his homeland. And he recognized that it was unconscionable for him to escape its consequences. He felt an accountability to be with his family and colleagues to resist the inevitable. He returned home and spoke out strongly against the Third Reich, Aryanism and totalitarianism. In 1944 he joined with a small cohort in an attempt to overthrow Hitler. The coup failed and he was sent to prison. There he wrote letters and reflections on what it meant to be a follower of Jesus. He made the marvelous distinction between ‘costly grace’ and ‘cheap grace.’ He wrote “Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ. It is an intellectual assent. It requires no moral courage.” He wrote that costly grace is the grace of discipleship, of really and truly following the way of Jesus Christ - a way that leads first to the cross before it leads to resurrection. Bonhoeffer chose costly grace. He was not only imprisoned for his discipleship, but executed shortly before the end of World War II.

Today we read a very simple Gospel. He rejects the illusions that power, prestige and prosperity will bring happiness and fulfillment. Jesus is challenged to chose between cheap grace and costly grace. He chooses to confront reality.

This Lent we are invited to reclaim the vision. We are called beyond ourselves into a community that has convictions upon which it acts. If we are disciples of Jesus we have to invest in a community that is bigger than any one of us. When we turn inward and focus only on our own problems, we cut ourselves off from the source of our strength. I cannot be a disciple of Jesus alone. You can be a disciple of Aristotle by yourself; you cannot be a disciple of Jesus by yourself. We our the Body of Christ today. We are interdependent.

Today I recommend to you three distinct ways we are called to be disciples of Jesus:

1. We are called to be disciples of peace and nonviolence. (I encourage you to read the St. Joan of Arc Statement on Peacemaking that is reprinted in today’s bulletin.)
2. We are called to be disciples of compassion: an intense listen to and identification with the other/
3. We are called to be disciples in a community of equals empowering women, minorities and poor people

In other words, we need to be people of hope, not because we know we will succeed, but because we must do what is good and right.