AUGUST 7, 2026 FATHER MICHAEL COUTTS
A few months ago, my phone of about eight years gave up the ghost, and so, when I went to buy a new phone, the salesperson immediately brought out a document, a four-page document and said, “All you have to do is sign over here and I will give you the phone.”
And so, I picked up the document and started reading and he says, “Sir, sir! That is only a formality. All you have to do is sign the document.” And I said, “Well, if that’s the case, then on page one, let us drop para one, on page two, let us drop para two. On page three, let us drop three and four.” He threw up his hands in horror and said, “I can’t do that. If I do that, I can’t sell you the phone.”
When Jesus called his disciples, “Come. Follow Me.” He didn’t have any document to be signed. He simply said, “Come. Follow Me.” And when He said that to Peter and Andrew, James, and John, they came and followed.
They didn’t ask Him what was the purpose, how long, were there fringe benefits, was there vacation time, what were we supposed to do? They simply followed Him. And that is exactly what Jesus said, “Come. Follow Me.” And His condition was simple. Carry your cross daily.
So people would come to Him and say, “Lord, I want to follow You.” And He would say, “Come follow Me. Carry your cross daily.” “But first, let me go and say ‘Farewell.'” And Jesus says, “A person who puts his hand to the plough and looks back is not worthy of the Kingdom of God.”
And I thought, “Why would Jesus have any problem?” In the Old Testament, when Elijah was going to Heaven, Elisha said, “I am going to follow you.” And Elijah said, “Okay.” And then Elisha said, “Let me say goodbye to my family.” He had twelve yoke of oxen. Can you imagine he slaughtered all of that. What a load of bull that he had to sacrifice for a whole village and they could have eaten for days together, how long it would have taken to follow Elijah.
But Jesus said a person who puts his hand to the plough and turns back is not worthy of the kingdom, He simply says, “When you follow me, there is no time for second thoughts and second-guessing, you either follow completely and fully trust me, or you’re not worthy of the Kingdom of God.
Another one said, “Let me go and bury my father.” And Jesus simply said, “Let the dead bury the dead.” Now, you would say isn’t that rather cruel? We pay good attention to our parents, our elders, and when they pass away, we want to give them great sympathy. We want to bury them with honour, with tradition. We have a wake ceremony, we have a mass offered. One of our sponsors today said, “I pray for my beloved mother, Marjorie.”
And so, you would say that is more, that is really reasonable, and not only reasonable, but it is Catholic, it is Christian, it is human. Well, the point was in the time of Jesus, there were many poor people and what they would do is they would hire themselves out as labourers to the landowner, let us say for four or five years.
And if during that course of four or five years, they suddenly died, like say after two years, then it was incumbent on the son in the family to go and hire himself to fill up the remaining three years or four years according to the contract made between the father and the landowner.
Jesus said the Kingdom of Heaven is right here. There is a sense of immediacy. There is no time for you to be fulfilling a tradition, a contract, and then come and follow me. And that is what he did for Peter and Andrew, James, and John.
They left everything. They left their fishing boats, they left their net, they even left a net full of fish and just left and came and followed Him. When He went to Matthew, He says, “Come. Follow Me.” Matthew left his books, his money, and everything, and came and followed Jesus.
Not for once did they ask Jesus, “What are we doing over here?” Gradually, over the course of the three years, He would show them they were going to preach the Kingdom of God. They were going to preach that salvation was for all people, and as we heard in that first reading from Nahum, happy the sound of the feet of the mountains of those who proclaimed the Good News. The Good News of the kingdom.
Gradually, they would also learn what they would have to do because He’d send them out in pairs and He’d say, “Take no purse, no extra tunic, no haversack, but trust in God, and trust in the people to whom you bring the Good News.
Nowadays, if we are called to follow Jesus Christ, the first thing we want is a cellphone, a computer, a credit card, then we can follow and do the Kingdom of God, and preach the Kingdom of God. Now, Jesus is not against all these devices, and they do help us. Then go for it, and proclaim the Good News. But don’t let the devices become your master, because there’s only one master and that is Christ, the Lord.
As Daniel Berrigan would say, “If you want to be a follower of Jesus Christ, you should look good on wood. The wood of the cross.” Now, Jesus wasn’t a masochist. Jesus didn’t say, “Look, I want you to carry the cross just in order to suffer pain.” He says, “No, cross will come immediately the moment you proclaim the Kingdom of God.” Because the Kingdom of God is so different from the kingdom that you and I live in.
Today, if we want to prosper, we use any means in order to go ahead. We will dupe the simple, the trusting, the naive, and those who do not know what is in that, as I said, the four-page document that I just have to sign. No. They use all these techniques.
If a woman is pregnant, get rid of her, because she will want maternity benefits afterwards. If a man is undergoing surgery, get rid of him, because he will need convalescing time. This is what the world around us requires in order to prosper.
Whereas Jesus says, “No. When you invite people for your banquet, go into the highways and byways. Include the lame, the blind, the deaf.” Exactly the opposite to what the world is speaking about us, and therefore, that will be a cross. If you want to be a follower of Jesus Christ, you should look good on wood.
And therefore, Jesus would say, “You have to pour out your life for the sake of others, and for the sake of kingdom.” When you do that, that is when you truly save life. That is where you know that your treasure truly is, where your heart will be. God bless you all.
