There’s a charming…and quite profound…little story about St. Therese of Lisieux that I’m fond of.  St. Therese lived to be just 25 in France in the latter half of the 1800s and would become one of the Doctors of the Church…named so by Pope John Paul II.  She was known for her little way of life that found its strength in the simple but never ending martyrdoms that naturally come to us each and every day.  The story goes that one day her big sister Leonie thought it was time for Therese to give up her toys.  So she gathered them all into a basket and went into a room where Therese and her other sister Celine were playing.   She explained that each of them could choose just one toy from the basket and the rest would be given away to an orphanage.  Celine quickly chose a colorful ball but Therese was paralyzed…unable to choose…staring intently at the toys wondering how she would handle not having all of them…so she responded…I choose them all! I want them all! 

Throughout this week I’ve been considering our gospel today and this little martyrdom of Therese…which by the way is a martyrdom felt by every one of us in this room if we admit it…pretty much every day.  At the very core of our humanity is this deep desire to have it all…to experience everything…to taste every delicious meal and see and travel to every far off land.  No matter how hard we try to control it…no matter how many prayers we pray…no matter how many Lents we give things up…our nature is to want things that will satisfy us.  I suppose it’s primordial. Our very being has this need to gather…possess…and consume in order to be happy.  It’s why we eat more than we need…buy more than we can use…and demand more than we are due.  We’re secretly afraid of never being satisfied…of not having enough.  It’s probably why we humans are so successful.  So for Therese…for you and me…to have to give something up…particularly something we adore…which by the way are sometimes objects but way more often are our emotional demands on ourselves and each other…to give these things up contradicts our very nature and that’s why it’s so difficult. 

This is what this gospel is really about…giving things up as part of our Christian Journey.  I am sending you out.  And don’t take anything that might help you…like a money bag or a sack filled with food or possessions…and don’t take shoes that you could surely use.  Go out and preach my Gospel by giving up the things that you think you might need.  And then be prepared…because the wolves might get you.  Wow.  That’s our gospel?  Really?  Doesn’t sound very promising.   And yet…this gospel is one of the most basic instructions given by Jesus as to what it means to be a Disciple.   What does it mean to be one of Jesus’ workers…to be sent out by him?   Martyrdom.  That’s what we’re being sent out for.  Martyrdom.
 
It’s interesting…for the early Christians…the ones who would have heard Jesus say this rather confusing passage…Martyrdom was the most natural end to discipleship.  It was the natural end of the story.  In fact they believed that we are intended for martyrdom…that dying as a martyr was just the way a Christian should end his or her life.  Then obviously through the years…when Christianity became accepted and the official religion of the Roman Empire…physical martyrdoms gave way to spiritual martyrdoms…which is what these 72 Disciples in this passage…Little Terese with her toys…and you and I are called to embrace.   Spiritual Martyrdom.   

But how do we do this?  How do we live without the things we think we so desperately need?  How can we embrace and actually grow holier from our daily martyrdoms?  It’s difficult for sure…a challenge of a lifetime.  We want it all…like Therese.  I’m happy to be your priest…to stand up here and preach the gospel…it’s just that I want my callaway golf clubs too…and my iPad…and my European road bike…and my HD TV with Dish Network…oh I also want my hopes and dreams to all come true too.  I’m happy to do my job but I want these things too.  Sound familiar?  The problem is…that’s not the way true discipleship happens.  The only way toward discipleship is to develop a spiritualty of Martyrdom. 

So think right now about your life…the way you hear and embrace the gospel…think about your marriages…your family relationships…your work relationships…think about the way you relate to the things in your life…the way you hold on tight to the things you think you need in order to accept His call.  How do we do it?  Because on their own…my golf clubs…IPad…road bike...and HD TV aren’t bad things…but how should I see them over and against this call to discipleship?  Here’s how…. 

Discipleship means coming to know that there is something out there much higher…much bigger…something much more profound than our things and even ourselves.   Being one of Jesus’ Disciples means coming to realize that I am not the center of the universe.   A prerequisite to discipleship is first becoming a martyr.  To die to yourself.  It comes straight from the first decades of the Church and it’s been part of our Catholic identity ever since.  The Jesuit Fr. Teilhard de Jardin once wrote…we finally reach maturity when we come to realize that there’s only one choice in life:  to genuflect before something higher than ourselves otherwise we begin to self-destruct.  Fr. Thomas Merton puts it this way…the most dangerous person on the planet is the person who only listens to him or herself.  Our very mass teaches us this…we don’t come here and make it up as we go…the greatest value of Mass is that it calls us to be obedient to something beyond ourselves.  Like a good parent…our mother…the Church…she tells us to sing the Gloria…to read these specific readings…to pray these set prayers.  And like good children…we’re better off for it.   And now we hear Jesus telling us the very same thing.  Go and do as I ask you and let go of all those things you’re holding on to…your physical possessions as well as your personality possessions that make you and those around you restless…let them go…you don’t need them. 

In the end we know this martyrdom is good for us. Think about it.  Whenever we seek to only satisfy ourselves...with food or drink or objects or control in relationships…whenever we seek to only please ourselves it never ends up pleasing at all and we grasp at the next thing to please us and the next and the next.  This can go on infinitely because these things really will never satisfy us.  We’ve all heard the axiom: Show me a selfish person who is really happy.  There aren’t many…there might not be any.  I’m sure we’ve all done something totally selfless for someone else at some point in our lives.   Remember what that felt like?  It’s infinitely more satisfying then doing something for ourselves.  Pope John XXIII…you all might remember his Decalogue for life that I shared with you last year…his 10 Commandments for a happy life…one of them is this:  today I will do something kind for someone that no one else will know about.  This is what the 72…Therese…you and me are called to do…this is the daily martyrdom that is required for discipleship…not because it’s fun or easy or entertaining…it’s not…but because it’s way more rewarding.  I know it and you know it.  Jesus wants us to be his disciples…we want to be his disciples…it’s why we’re here today.  But to do this we must let go and give some things up for the task He’s giving us.  What do you need to give up in order to be the disciple he wants you to be?