Today’s Gospel is a Lesson that can only be fully experienced through the heart. Jesus and some disciples are traveling along a road when they encounter a would-be follower who says, “I will follow You wherever You go.” Jesus replies, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head” (Lk. 9:57-58). Then another man comes along and Jesus says, “Follow Me!” The man replies, “Lord, let me go and bury my father first.” To which Jesus answers, “Leave the dead to bury their dead; your duty is to go and spread the news of the Kingdom of God.” And to still another would-be follower, Jesus says, “Once the hand is laid on the plough, no one who looks back is fit for the Kingdom of God” (Lk. 9:59-60,62).

Jesus is talking to the would-be disciples about priorities. He says that those who have given their faith must also give their life — not when it becomes convenient to do so, but now; not after worldly interests have been attended to, but now. “Go and proclaim the Kingdom of God,” Jesus says, meaning right now. Place your life under the Rule of God now, and attend to all your family interests and all your worldly interests within that context.

It was for those would-be followers, just as it is for us now, not enough to understand this intellectually. Jesus was telling them just as He is telling us that the only place we can accept this commitment is at the deepest level of our beings. In other words, not through the head, but through the heart.”