FOLLOW ME is the invitation of Jesus in the Gospel. Several people respond to him and say I WILL FOLLOW YOU.
I am sure you know that this line has become a famous song sung originally by Ricky Nelson in the 60s. It was revived in the 90s and became the theme of the blockbuster musical movie, SISTER ACT, with the Black American actor Whoopi Goldberg playing the lead role.
The Sister Act version is sung by a choir of nuns conducted by Whoopi Goldberg. It begins as a very solemn and meditative tune, set in a very slow tempo. It says, “I will follow you, follow you wherever you may go. There isn’t an ocean too deep, a mountain so high it can keep me away, away from his love…”
The sisters who are in black habits are stiff, formal and, if I may use the term, FUNEREAL. But even if you are tempted to yawn, you are attracted because they are singing it soulfully. The song is polyphonic, the harmony is uplifting especially as it draws to a close. Then, just when you think it is over, the pianist suddenly signals a transition. The elderly nun playing the piano stands up and allows her body to shake with the tune as she bangs on the piano to switch to a faster tempo. It is the same song, but this time much livelier and accompanied by a maracas, a bongo and drums.
And the conductor, Whoopi Goldberg herself who is now swaying to the tune succeeds in motivating the formerly stiff and senile-looking nuns to sway their butts and dance to the beat while the younger sopranos belt up as backup singers and the song keeps building up, filling the old church with passion and energy.
Whoever rearranged that song for Sister Act is brilliant and must be really a true lover of the Christian faith. The setting is an old Church that has become too formal, too parochial and cold, where only the elderly people enter. It is a Church associated with archaic symbols, with heritage icons of unknown saints of the past standing on pillars and peering sternly at worshippers who have nothing better to do in their bored and retired lives.
This was the Church that had been shaken three decades before that by the Reform of Vatican II in the early 60s, when an elderly Pope John XXIII convened a Council that opened the windows of Catholicism in order to let in some fresh wind of renewal and to clean up the historical dust and cobwebs that had begun to cover the subversive memory of the Man from Nazareth.
As in the movie, there were also a lot of well-meaning people, bishops, religious and lay who reacted vehemently to the shift. They were like the old superiors in the pews who could not dance to the tune, and who gave dagger looks to this black woman played by Whoopi Goldberg, who was actually a fugitive from the law, and who had disturbed the peace of their dying convent.
But they saw the effect; people were drawn again to the Church because they were allowed to hear again the disturbing voice of the carpenter from Nazareth, who did exactly the same thing with the Temple and Synagogue institutions in his time, which had also grown cold and lifeless. In place of the usual burnt offerings and sacrifices, Jesus brought the fire of God’s Word and set hearts ablaze. In the Gospel, we hear of the people who responded to his call, and how he challenged their responses with equally disturbing rejoinders.
The first one supposedly said “I will follow you WHEREVER YOU GO.” The line reminds you of the biblical words of Ruth the Moabite to her mother in law, Naomi: “Wherever you go, I shall go; wherever you live there shall I live. Your people will be my people and your God will be my God too.” Jesus answers by tempering the romanticism. He says, “Ok, but let me remind you WHEREVER can sometimes mean having NOWHERE to go to, nowhere to stay, nowhere to lay your head, like LSIs (locally stranded individuals).”
The second one has a condition. He says, “I will follow you, but first, let me bury my father.” It sounds reasonable—if his father is really dead already. But he is actually using his father, who is still alive, as an excuse. What he really wants to say is, “Let me wait until my parents have died already. Then I will decide.”
The third one could not let go. He says, “I will follow you, but first, let me say goodbye to my family. Some people just cannot follow because they have too many attachments. They want to have their cakes and eat them too. People who remain undecided will never follow. You open some doors and close others. You cannot follow if you keep looking back.
He uses as analogy a farmer who sets his hand on the plow and keeps looking back. “Looking back” is generally a positive value in Pinoy culture, as in “Ang di marunong lumingon sa pinanggalingan ay hundi makararating sa paroroonan.” In the Gospel it is negative: as in “Ang lingon nang lingon…” There are people who get stuck with their past issues. They cannot forgive, they cannot move on. Like the wife of Lot, they petrify and turn into a pillar of salt. Jesus’ challenge is, “You want to follow me? LET GO!”
Discipleship is not about being put in a straitjacket. It’s actually about being set free to love. And so the song rises in a crescendo and says,
“I love you, I love you, I love you
And where you go I’ll follow, I’ll follow, I’ll follow,
You’ll always be my true love, my true love, my true love,
from now until forever, forever, forever.”
The call is about FINDING YOUR TRUE LOVE, embarking on an exciting journey, aiming at nothing less than ETERNITY as your destination.
This is a homily delivery by Bishop Pablo Virgilio David of Kalookan for September 30, 2020, Wednesday of the 26th Week in Ordinary Time, Feast of Saint Jerome, Luke 9:57-62
