THE COST OF DISCIPLESHIP
23RD SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME, YEAR C, THE NATIONAL CONVENTION OF THE CONFRATERNITY OF MARY QUEEN OF ALL HEARTS, AT VERITAS UNIVERSITY, ABUJA, 07.09.2025. HOMILY BY MOST REV. IGNATIUS A. KAIGAMA, ARCHBISHOP OF ABUJA.
READINGS: WISDOM 3:13-18B; PHILEMON 9B-10.12-17; LUKE 14:25-33
THEME: THE COST OF DISCIPLESHIP
Dear members of the confraternity of Our Lady Queen of all Hearts, gathered here from all over the country, at the Veritas University, Abuja, on this 23rd Sunday of the Year. As sons and daughters of Mary, you have come to renew your mission of total consecration to Jesus through Mary. Your slogan is: ALL TO JESUS, THROUGH MARY OUR MOTHER.
The Confraternity of Mary Queen of All Hearts is all about offering all to Jesus through Mary. I am happy that all of you have dedicated yourselves to honouring Mary, our Mother, and giving true worship to Jesus Christ our Lord. I thank Fr. Michael Mary Akigwe, your National Chaplain, Fr. Victor Ilo, your Abuja Archdiocesan Chaplain, and other officials who have put this celebration together.
When we call Mary the mother of God and our mother, some Christians raise eyebrows. They say, “How can she be ‘Mother of God’ when this does not appear in the Bible?” We can also argue that the words “Trinity,” “Incarnation,” “Christmas,” and “Bible” do not appear in the Bible, but we use them to describe revealed truths.
Lk 1:43 tells us that Elizabeth, filled with the Holy Spirit, called Mary “the Mother of my Lord.” For Jews, the word “Lord” (in Greek kurios) referred to God Himself. If Jesus is God and Mary is His mother, then Mary is called the Mother of God, not the source of His divinity, but the mother of the Divine Person who took on flesh in her womb. To deny Mary this title “Mother of God” is to deny what scripture says that Mary gave birth to the eternal Word made flesh (cf. Col 2:9).
To belong to the Confraternity of Mary Queen of All Hearts is not to carry a title but to embrace a mission: to live radically for Christ through Mary. Today’s readings challenge us to consider what true discipleship means – and how Mary, our Mother and Queen, leads us to embrace that radical call that requires us to value God over and above all else, even if that would cost us our life or even friendship with loved ones.
In today’s gospel, Jesus does not mince words when He said: “If anyone comes to me without hating his father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple” (Lk. 14:26). This is not a call to despise our loved ones but to love them in proper order – placing Christ above all. Under normal circumstances, parents’ call must be respected and obeyed, but when it comes in conflict with God’s call, God’s call is supreme.
When Jesus emphasizes that we prioritize our relationship with Him above all else, He is not telling us to cease taking care of our sick parents; He is not asking that we fight our family members or keep malice with them. He is simply asking us to put Him first at every point in time. If you are invited to a family lunch or birthday party that clashes with an important Church event, put Jesus first. If your football team is playing a match and the time clashes with the time for Sunday Mass, put Jesus first.
Remember that Jesus does not forbid us to love parent or child, but adds emphatically, ‘more than me.’” That is to say, love of family must not take the place of love of God but should flow from the love of God.
To follow Christ requires detachment, sacrifice, and even suffering. Jesus gives us three criteria to become His disciples, namely: hate, embrace sacrifice (carry your own cross), and renounce greed for worldly possessions. Firstly, “hate” is a very strong word, and we know from the scriptures that Jesus is God and God is love (cf. 1 John 4:8); God so loved the world (John 3:16); that Jesus commanded us to “love one another” (John 15:12). He also told us that many will hate His followers because of their association with Him (Lk 6:22), but we should return the hate with love (Lk 6:27). How is it that all of a sudden we are now hearing “hate your mother, father, siblings and so on if you want to be my disciple” from the same Jesus? He wants us to make a conscious decision to put God first.
Secondly, embrace suffering/carry your own cross. This entails submitting to the will of God, dying to your old self, and taking a new life.
Thirdly, to renounce possession is not a call to fully abandon all you have, but it is an instruction that highlights the fact that your house, money, job, and endowments should not suffocate your relationship with God.
Mary, the Queen of All Hearts, is the model of total surrender, of radical discipleship. She and the saints give us an example that such a life is achievable. She put love of God first, even over her life and personal comfort.
The Lord gave us men and women in every century who left all else behind for His sake and thus became radiant signs of His love. We need only think of people like Benedict and Scholastica, Francis and Clare of Assisi, Elizabeth of Hungary and Hedwig of Silesia, Ignatius of Loyola, Teresa of Avila, and in our own age, Mother Teresa and Padre Pio. With their whole lives, they lived for God and for humanity.
Pope Leo XIV will canonize Blessed Carlo Acutis and Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati together today, Sunday, September 7.
Carlo Acutis (3 May 1991 – 12 October 2006) was a British-born Italian student celebrated for his devotion to the Eucharist. He used his digital media to promote Eucharistic devotion by creating a website and documenting Eucharistic miracles and Marian apparitions. He died at age fifteen. He was beatified in 2020 and regarded as a model for young believers. He is often referred to as the “first millennial saint”.
Pier Giorgio Frassati (6 April 1901 – 4 July 1925) was an Italian activist. He was an opponent of fascism and did not support the regime of Benito Mussolini. He was dedicated to social justice and joined several charitable organizations, including Catholic Action and the Society of St. Vincent de Paul, to aid and better the conditions of the poor. He translated his faith into action.
On June 15, 2025, Floribert Bwana Chui, a Congolese customs officer who was martyred in 2007 for resisting corruption, was beatified in Rome. He was a dedicated member of the Community of Saint’Egidio and was a symbol of honesty and moral integrity. He was killed as a witness to the Christian faith. He was known as a Christian who gave great importance to prayer, listening to God’s word, and communion with others. His story is a powerful example of how young Nigerians can be a force for peace and goodness, even in the face of widespread corruption. Another example is Miss Vivian, who, refusing to be raped, was killed in Benin City.
In the second reading today, Paul, in his letter to Philemon, appeals for Onesimus to be received no longer as a slave but as a brother. Paul, here, teaches us that we can sacrifice our own comfort in order to restore that of others around us, and for the peace of our world. What do we learn from all this? There is nothing, no matter how dear to us, that is indispensable and cannot be sacrificed for the sake of God and humanity.
Each person has a specific task in life, and to each is assigned a particular way of contributing to humanity. We have religious leaders, traditional leaders, political leaders, professionals, such as doctors, lawyers, security officials, etc. God desires that all people of all times should count exclusively on Him and be totally available for others.
In our world, where so often only power and wealth seem to count, God calls leaders, especially political leaders, to cultivate selfless giving and a leadership that serves rather than imposes or exploits.
Those political leaders who are already frantically and desperately struggling for 2027 elective positions and forgetting to live in the present with all honesty and dedication, are reminded in our first reading from the Book of Wisdom (9:13-14): “Who can know God’s counsel, or who can conceive what the Lord intends? For the deliberations of mortals are timid, and unsure are our plans.”
Are leaders ready as Jesus teaches, to lose their lives for the people they struggle so hard using all kinds of maneuvers to win elections?
Are they willing to resist the temptation to selfishly acquire money that belongs to the people, to prioritize their comfort over the suffering poor, or to follow their own will instead of God’s, to choose God over their “possessions” of Dollars and properties they acquire and keep abroad when the citizens are suffocating with poverty?
From my own home State in Taraba, a major bridge in Namnai, Gassol Local Government Council, linking to Benue, Adamawa, and Southern Nigeria, collapsed and has stood abandoned for over a year, “leaving behind a trail of lost lives, destroyed property, and crippled livelihoods.” “The Federal Government, via the North East Development Commission (NEDC), pledged reconstruction in early 2025, and still, nothing has been done.” Where is the sensitivity of leadership? It is typical in Nigeria to dillydally until several more lives are lost in addition to the many already lost! One sees and experiences very horrible roads in Taraba State, such as the Jalingo-Numan road, neglected for more than three decades, and others, such as Zing road, Gembu road, Wukari road, Ibi road, Bali road, Karim Lamido road, etc. There are other similar deplorable conditions of roads in some other States of the Federation.
Good leadership will prioritize alleviating the suffering of the poor. I understand that “The United States has approved $32.5 million in assistance to Nigeria to help address hunger, to provide food assistance and nutritional support to internally displaced people in conflict-affected areas.” While thanking the US, one may ask, “Will the hundreds of thousands of vulnerable people affected really benefit from this emergency aid?” The funds will naturally evaporate in administrative and bureaucratic malgovernance; swallowed up greedily in corruption by those who already have more than enough. We can only hope and pray that the money is used for the purpose for which it was meant.
St. Louis De Montfort reminds us that Mary leads us along the way of humility, obedience, simplicity, service, justice, and trust in God’s wisdom. Our politics, our leadership, our strategies, our ambitions, if not rooted in God, become houses built on sand.
Nigerian leaders can become more humane if they put God above greed; they can become more just when they place God’s wisdom above political calculations; and when they truly bring God into governance, they can narrow the gap between the “first-class citizens” and “second-class citizens”, the “big Nigerian men/women” and the “ordinary Nigerians.”
May Mary, Queen of All Hearts, obtain for our leaders in charge of our patrimony the grace to say “yes” to God and to be kind and generous to those entrusted to their care. For you and all of us, may this convention renew our zeal to follow Christ radically, to love Him above all, and may our “yes” be as complete and generous as hers. May she continue to intercede for us that God will give all Nigerians the grace and the strength to be true fearers of God, not just statistically or nominally being religious.
