The Gospel for this coming Sunday is a practical admonition to incorporate your faith, faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, into the very root and being of your day – thoughts, words and actions. Begin with yourself: inspect the fruits of your lived-faith and then evangelize others to do the same.  Our faith should be like our bibles: well used with all the “new shine” worn away. With that in mind, a final thought from Culpepper (152):

Once there was a man who took great pride in his automobile. He performed all the routine maintenance on schedule and kept the car clean inside and out. When he could afford to do so, he began to trade cars every couple of years so that he always had a relatively new vehicle. He also traded up, getting a larger, more luxurious car each time. Then he began to trade every year so that he would always have the current model. Eventually, he got to the point where he would buy a new car, drive it home, and leave it in the garage. He refused to use it because he didn’t want to put any miles on it or run the risk of getting it scratched. So the new car just sat—pretty, but never used. This could be a parable of the way some people treat their faith, becoming less and less active in church while professing more and more strongly that they are committed Christians.

Jesus knew that it would not be easy for anyone to respond to the call to discipleship. The simple call, “Follow me,” meant such a radical change of life. Knowing how difficult it would be, Jesus concluded the sermon with sayings that warn about the urgency of putting discipleship into practice.

Image credit: A detail of The Parable of the Mote and the Beam | Domenico Fetti, 1619 | Metropolitan Museum of Art NYC | PD-US