Holy Sarcasm!

(For the audio version of this blog, please visit: https://brothersinchristcmf.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/Mass-Blog-for-the-23rd-Sunday-in-Ordinary-Time-2025.2.mp3)

Sarcasm can be seen as an intelligent person’s alternative to cursing. Both are ignited by passions and often aimed at people who disagree with us. Done artfully and with a bit of humor, sarcasm can help someone let off steam while possibly teaching a memorable lesson. Jesus occasionally aimed sarcasm at Pharisees to highlight the silliness of their objections to his wisdom.

Matthew 12:26 shows Jesus countering the Pharisees’ accusation that he casts out demons by the power of Satan. “If Satan drives out Satan,” Jesus reasons, “how, then, will his kingdom stand? And if I drive out demons by [Satan], by whom do your own people drive them out?”

In John 10:32, before his enemies try stoning him for saying he and the Father are one, Jesus responds, “I have shown you many good works from my Father. For which of these are you trying to stone me?”

In this Sunday’s gospel reading (Luke 14:25-33), he passionately addresses the aimless crowds that had been following him as if they were today’s version of groupies mobbing a Rock star. He seems to be challenging them to better understand the difference between a fan and a disciple. Not only does he want them to discern the value of the home and family he offers vs. the earthly ones captivating them, but he seems to suggest that they give that analysis the kind of contemplation any pivotal decision deserves—lest they face the kind of sarcastic criticism illustrated in this parable:

“Which of you wishing to construct a tower does not first sit down and calculate the cost to see if there is enough for its completion?,” he asks. “Otherwise, after laying the foundation and finding himself unable to finish the work, the onlookers should laugh at him and say, ‘This one began to build but did not have the resources to finish.’”

The question then becomes, once you make such a life-changing commitment, who is that work for? Whether for your own ego or for God, you become a slave. Slavery to one’s ego deserves sarcastic rebuke, but when you commit yourself to being a useful servant of God, such slavery is destined to become brotherhood and sisterhood in Christ.

That’s the transformation Paul was hoping Philemon would grant to his slave, Onesimus—whose name ironically means “useful.” That can be an apt or a sarcastic definition for “slave.” Onesimus renounced both connotations of his name by escaping from Philemon, as we read in Paul’s letter this Sunday (Philemon 9-10, 12-17).  Nevertheless, under Paul’s guidance, Onesimus chose to be God’s slave. Paul then offered Philemon the opportunity to learn from his former slave what being useful to God really means.

It requires developing a healthy hatred for everything less important.

Jesus told his groupies, “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.”  The word “Hating” seems like a sarcastic alternative to the idea of “loving less.” But for slaves to make themselves useful, and for groupies to make of themselves brothers and sisters in Christ, we must pray for the insight to discern the wisdom behind Christ’s displays of sarcasm and irony. Sunday’s reading from Wisdom (Wisdom 9:13-18b) acknowledges how hard that is for us.

“The deliberations of mortals are timid, and unsure are our plans,” Wisdom tells us, but adds … “who ever knew your counsel, except you had given wisdom and sent your holy spirit from on high? And thus were the paths of those on earth made straight.”

Let’s pray that our paths lead straight to an appreciation of God’s wisdom … and sense of humor.

–Tom Andel