The cost of discipleship

By Fr. Roy Cimagala

DISCIPLESHIP, as described by Christ, may command a very steep price since it involves a heavy cost, but it actually gives us the best deal. Yes, it demands total detachment from earthly things, even to the extent of “hating one’s father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, and even one’s own life.” But then again, Christ reassures us that we will have a lot more of them if we would just stick with him.

More than that, discipleship also requires us to carry the cross in any form it comes and just to follow Christ. To top it all, it requires us to be very good at planning and strategizing so we can come up with an effective action plan and produce the fruits expected of being a disciple of Christ. All this was described by Christ in the gospel of St. Luke 14,15-23.

We should just try our best, always asking for God’s grace in the first place, to meet all these requirements, convinced that they are all worthwhile. A person who professes to be a Christian but fails to be a disciple of Christ is not really an authentic Christian.

Of course, this will require time and a lot of effort. But as long as there is some earnest struggle, albeit not perfect, one can truly be called a Christian. Just look at the apostles themselves, starting with Peter, the head of group, and see how with their weaknesses, mistakes and failures, they still managed to be disciples of Christ. The important thing is just to try our best to follow Christ, even if our best is not perfect.

Let’s be consoled by what St. Paul said in his Letter to the Philippians in this regard: “Be confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” (1,6) Ours is simply to try our best, since as a saying would put it, “God will do the rest.”

To be detached is not just a matter of emptying ourselves of earthly things. That self-emptying should lead us to be filled with the very spirit of Christ, a spirit which would make us do nothing other than the will of God.

Everyday, we have to make the exercise of conforming our will to God’s will by making a bold plan of how to go about following God’s will of personal sanctification and apostolate. In pursuit of these dual purpose of our life, we should try to give our all. We cannot afford to be complacent and lukewarm. We should feel driven and pro-active.

When we notice that we are more dominated and guided by our moods, our emotional and bodily condition which often are erratic and inconsistent, or when we notice we feel lazy and empty, we should immediately react. The ideal condition for us is to burn with zeal to follow God’s will. Absent that zeal, we would be giving a foothold to our weaknesses and temptations. That is why the cross is a necessity in our life.

We should also try to cultivate the skill of anticipating and planning as early as possible. It’s actually a necessity, a vital consequence of our nature that needs to work things out instead of just waiting for things to work out by themselves. It’s what is proper to us.

With these requirements met, we can expect to be an authentic disciple of Christ in spite of our weaknesses and mistakes along the way.

Email: roycimagala@gmail.com