Yes...But

Gospel: Luke 9: 57-62

All of us are like these would be followers of Jesus in today's Gospel reading.  We want to follow the Lord, but we have stuff that holds us back.  For some of us, it is a clinging to the dead things of the past that we must let go of because God is doing something new in our midst.  For others it is a preoccupation with the present things that are not really important and only distract us from following the call of God.

Some will say, 'Truth cannot change' and this is no doubt true.  But our understanding and awareness of what that truth really says does change.  At one time we thought truth told us slavery was a natural institution that must be defended; now we realize that was wrong and that truth really says something different.  Did the truth change? The object itself did not, but our awareness of it did because the knower is not identical to the object known.  

To follow the Lord is to be in a constant state of discernment and listening to the voice of God within us.  It is not a slavish attachment to the past, nor is it a license to do and justify what we want.  It is a demanding discipline of balance that requires great humility and continual dialogue with others.  No authority can do the work for us.  We must do the work of putting aside the dead things of the past and the ephemeral of the present to hear the voice of God calling us to authenticity.