As they were proceeding on their journey someone said to him, "I will follow you wherever you go." Jesus answered him, "Foxes have dens and birds of the sky have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to rest his head." And to another he said, "Follow me." But he replied, "(Lord,) let me go first and bury my father." But he answered him, "Let the dead bury their dead. But you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God." And another said, "I will follow you, Lord, but first let me say farewell to my family at home." (To him) Jesus said, "No one who sets a hand to the plow and looks to what was left behind is fit for the kingdom of God."
Copyright © Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, USCCB
Commentary of the day :
Saint Leo the Great (?-c.461), Pope and Doctor of the Church
Sermon 71 for the Resurrection of the Lord; PL 54, 388 (©Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers)
The Apostle of the Gentiles, Paul, dearly beloved, does not disagree with this belief when he says: "Even though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now we know Him so no more," (2Cor 5,16). For the Lord's resurrection was not the ending but the changing of the flesh, and His substance was not destroyed by His increase of power. The quality altered, but the nature did not cease to exist; the body was made impassible which it had been possible to crucify; it was made incorruptible, though it had been possible to wound it. And properly is Christ's flesh said not to be known in that state in which it had been known, because nothing remained passible in it, nothing weak, so that it was both the same in essence and not the same in glory. But what wonder if Saint Paul maintains this about Christ's body when he says of all spiritual Christians: «Henceforth we know no one after the flesh.»
Henceforth, he says, we begin to experience the resurrection in Christ, since the time when in Him, Who died for all, all our hopes were guaranteed to us. We do not hesitate in diffidence, we are not under the suspense of uncertainty, but having received an earnest of the promise, we now with the eye of faith see the things which will be, and rejoicing in the uplifting of our nature, we already possess what we believe...
Let God's people, then, recognize that they are a new creation in Christ (2Cor 5,17) and with all vigilance understand by Whom they have been adopted and whom they have adopted. Let not the things which have been made new return to their ancient instability; and let not him who has "put his hand to the plough" forsake his work but rather attend to that which he sows than look back to that which he has left behind. Let no one fall back into that he has forsaken... For this is the path of health through imitation of the Resurrection begun in Christ,
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