Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time – Year A
For today’s Gospel reading click the link below:
Mass Readings
(2 Kings 4:8-11. 14-16, Rom 6:3-4. 8-11, Matt 10:37-42)
Homily Reflection by Fr. JJ Fenelon
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,
We can claim to have experienced some real difficulties in life. We could have had promises broken, suffer betrayal and experience disillusionment from broken relationships. This can lead us to become cynical and negative in our outlook. All the sophisticated developments in the field of knowledge and multi-media combine to teach us to love self, to cultivate a strong self-image, to resist and overcome anything that would diminish the quality of our lives. We can easily become a very selfish people.
Today’s 1st reading begins with a wonderful little story about hospitality and generosity. (2Kgs.4:8-16). This is a beautiful story of God’s love seen through Elisha and the lady of Shunem. It is similar to the story of Abraham. Abraham’s hospitality and generosity extended to the 3 men who visited him who were actually angels (Gen.18:1-15). Because of his hospitality, they blessed Abraham and Sarah and promised a child the following year as Elisha did for the Shunem couple.
Hospitality is one of the great virtues found in the Bible as it is in so many of our cultures and family traditions. The ancients believed that each person should be welcomed as though one were welcoming God himself. Jesus moves this virtue to another level of Christian discipleship in today’s Gospel, “Whoever receives you receives me, and whoever receives me receives the one who sent me…” (Mt.10:40).
The virtue of hospitality is far more than being a good host at a dinner party. Christian Hospitality means encountering the presence of God in others – usually in those whom we least expect- and extending the God in us to them.
Sometimes we get so self-absorbed with our own lives that we miss the presence of the Lord in our lives through our encounters with other people. The scribes and Pharisees were so self-absorbed with their ways of practicing the faith. As teachers of the law they missed God’s presence in Jesus because their learning and upbringing prejudiced their way of thinking and acting. They expected the Messiah to come as warrior king to overthrow the foreign powers and bring freedom to them. They could not accept a carpenter from Nazareth to be the Messiah. Therefore, they fail to extend God’s presence in them to others. The same can happen to us.
Today’s 1st reading reminds us that discipleship is lived out in the ordinariness of our lives: teaching a class; waiting on tables; straightening our desk; turning on the computer; answering the phone; sitting at the reception desk; tending to our children. Do we pause for a moment when we see the regular road sweeper or those who clear our garbage on our streets in our neighbourhood, the security at the door, coffee lady in our office etc… When we offer them a greeting or a smile, we reflect Jesus and it becomes the best witnessing we can give as Christian disciples. We recognize God in them and they in us. Jesus always welcomed the sinners, tax-collectors, the marginalized and the downtrodden.
The call to discipleship is not old but it is always inviting a response of faith and trust from us. In the 2nd reading, St Paul reminds us that if we have died with Christ then we rise to new life with Him. New life in Jesus is realised when we choose to become his followers, live for others and sometimes even lose our own lives (e.g. martyrs) because this is the only way we can really discover our true selves.
Jesus tells us right up front that there’s no looking back. There is no turning back. “Anyone who prefers father or mother… son or daughter… does not take his cross… is not worthy of me… anyone who loses his life for my sake, will find it.” (Mt.1037-42).
It is a very radical, unnatural, almost suicidal demand. Jesus made these demands continuously to people he met: To the adulterous woman “…go in peace and sin no more (Jn.8:3-11)”, to the rich young man “…go and sell all that you have and come follow me… (Mt.19:16-22)”. He lived what he taught and demanded in His very own life by His own choices and actions. His Father always came first. He trusted the love and providence of His Father. He began to experience how His Father’s love turned evil into good, and dying into living. Every time He chose the Father’s will instead of His own, He was freer, richer, and more complete as a man. “Father…, let this cup pass from Me, but let your will not mine be done” (Mt.26:39). Every time He put aside His own desires to serve others, He became more fully alive, more fully a part of everyone else. “My food is to do the will of Him who sent me and to finish His work” (Jn.4:34).
This is what He wants for all of us. It is this kind of unselfish love that propels us into lives of service and ministry, into marriage and family, into priesthood and religious life. It is this kind of commitment to the Lord that is put to the test by the trials of life – sickness, failure, natural disasters, the death of our loved ones. We get to understand what “dying to self” means when our patience is tried to breaking point by a rebellious teenager, or an irresponsible spouse, or the death of a loved one. We are asked to give up our own lives in favour of a parent suffering with Alzheimer’s or dementia, or someone close to us who is being destroyed by drugs or alcohol.
The true follower of Jesus is not surprised, or angered, or lost in despair when this happens. To walk in the footsteps of the Master means to put aside self, willingly, generously, and with absolute trust. It means giving without measuring the cost. It means putting on Christ, allowing him to live in us and through us. By His grace, we deny self, we lose our life… but we are absolutely certain that with Him we shall inherit the fullness of life and happiness, forever. “No one who sets a hand to the plough and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God” (Lk.957-62)
It’s clear from what Jesus says that being his disciple is not a part-time job; it is not something we do only on Sunday at church or occasionally doing a few good deeds during the week.
Taking up the cross isn’t a part-time practice we do on Good Friday, or when we are feeling strong and resilient. Instead, Jesus says losing our lives for his sake must be daily. It’s not a part-time religion; it’s a full-time following! Taking up His cross is part and parcel of the life of a disciple of Christ.
St. Paul tells us: “For freedom, Christ has set us free” (Gal.5:1). Freedom from death and sin. Freedom to love; freedom to live. What we know to be absolutely true is that our response to Jesus’ invitation involves us for the long haul and it will require great continuous sacrifice. We also know that his call and our faithfulness to it, is totally liberating: it gives us vision; focuses our energies and opens us up to give ourselves generously and freely to the kingdom which Christ came to proclaim.
Only when we can emulate Jesus in such a manner can the virtue of Christian hospitality of recognizing the presence of God in others become a reality in our lives. Only when we stop judging others, then the stranger among us is no longer a stranger, but a member of the family. Just like the way Elisha was made welcome, a stranger in our midst can come to enjoy a room in our heart, our house, our Church. This is true discipleship!