On the Thirteenth Sunday of Ordinary Time for Year A, Jesus in His ongoing Missionary Discourse stipulates some hard demands but offers some worthy rewards. The Gospel reading can be seen as being divided into two elements, requirements for His discipleship and rewards for the care of those disciples.
Does Jesus really expect you to love Him above you parents or your children? He must be referring for those in religious life and not for the layman, right? Well, technically He does mean it and it’s for everyone who follows Him. Some things to consider as you meditate on this. Love is a complicated word. In one sense, perhaps the simplest of senses, love is just natural affection. In a more complicated sense, love is directed at what we worship. We have natural affection for our parents and children, but we don’t worship them. Worship, which I will make the claim is the highest order of love, is reserved for God.
Today’s Gospel:
Jesus said to his apostles:
“Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me,
and whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me;
and whoever does not take up his
cross
and follow after me is not worthy of
me.
Whoever finds his life will lose it,
and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. Whoever receives you receives me,
and whoever receives me receives the
one who sent me.
Whoever receives a prophet because
he is a prophet
will receive a prophet’s reward,
and whoever receives a righteous man
because he is a righteous man
will receive a righteous man’s
reward.
And whoever gives only a cup of cold
water
to one of these little ones to drink
because the little one is a
disciple—
amen, I say to you, he will surely
not lose his reward.”
~Mt: 10:37-42
I’m going to go to another YouTube channel that provides explanations of
Gospel passages to explain this hard saying, My Catholic Life.
My Catholic Life:
When a scribe
approached Jesus and asked him which of the commandments was the greatest, he
replied, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all
your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength." The second is
this. You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
There is no other commandment greater than these. Mark 12:30-31. Today's gospel offers a similar teaching. We
must love God above all else, even more than father, mother, son, or daughter. By contrasting love for God with love for
family, Jesus is not diminishing familial affection. Rather, he is revealing
that the only way to truly love others is by loving God first. St. Thomas Aquinas teaches, "God must be
loved above all things and before all others out of charity. For he is loved as
the source of happiness, whereas our neighbor is loved as one who shares in
that happiness along with us. In other
words, God must be loved first because he is the ultimate cause and source of
beatitude, the only true happiness. Though
we are called to love our families and our neighbors, Christian charity
dictates that we love them in relation to God as fellow recipients of divine
happiness.
When Jesus speaks of loving father or mother or son or daughter more than him, he is addressing the inner conflict we sometimes experience in our emotions. When natural affection is not transformed by spiritual charity, the love we offer another can do more harm than good. Disordered affection replaces the ultimate good, God, with the lesser good of emotional attachment and human consolation. The real danger arises when our loved ones stray from God's will and we out of misguided affection affirm them in their error thereby confirming them in a state lacking true beatitude. The foundation of true love is this. God alone is the source of perfect happiness for us and for our loved ones. Our belief in God transforms the way we love others. No longer do we merely seek their earthly comfort or emotional well-being. Rather, we direct them to the eternal good, God himself, who alone fulfills every longing. When we love God first, all our relationships are purified.
So our natural affections “not transformed by spiritual charity” become disordered, which become idolatry. “When we love God first”—through worship I might add—“our relationships are purified.
This week for the pastoral homily, speaking for the United States
Conference of Catholic Bishops, I turn to Fr. Greg Friedman OFM who combines
the demand and rewards elements of the passage.
Fr. Greg:
Matthew seems to want
the shock value to hit home. Putting
love of parents and children second. Following Jesus on the way of the cross,
giving up one's life for the sake of Jesus. What are we to make of this tough
language of discipleship? But then
immediately come three descriptions of simple acts of love from Jesus. Welcome
a prophet, a righteous person, a little one with acts of hospitality and
compassion. I'm reminded of visiting a
poor man's home in New Mexico years ago when I was a seminarian taking census
on a hot, dusty afternoon. I spoke no Spanish, but the helper who interpreted
for me told me that the elderly gentleman wanted to offer me a glass of water.
And he's sorry, the interpreter said that he can't offer you anything else.
That rich act of welcome has stayed with me for over 40 years. But be careful of thinking that hospitality
is anything but simple. When we truly carry through on real hospitality, real
compassion, it means readjusting our priorities.
But be careful of thinking that hospitality is anything but simple. When we truly carry through on real hospitality, real compassion, it means readjusting our priorities. When we put Christ first in the person of another who is in need, we're committing ourselves to losing our lives for the sake of Christ and walking with him on the way of the cross, the way of love.
The hospitality comes as a result of putting Christ first. St. Matthew lumps these saysings together because
there is a relationship between them.
Sunday Meditation: “Whoever
receives you receives me,
and whoever receives
me receives the one who sent me.”
I love the hymn, “Lord You Have Come to the Seashore,” here performed by Tim Lewis. I don’t know who that is but he sings it
well.
Lord you have come to the seashore, neither searching for the
rich nor the wise
Desiring only that I should follow
REFRAIN:
Oh Lord with Your eyes set upon me, gently smiling You have
spoken my name
All I longed for I have found by the water, at Your side I
will seek other shores
Lord, see my goods my possessions, in my boat you find no
power, no wealth
Will You accept then, my nets and labor?
REFRAIN
Lord, take my hands and direct them, help me spend myself in
seeking the lost
Returning love for the love you gave me
REFRAIN
Lord, as I drift on the waters, be the resting place of my
restless heart
My life's companion, my friend and refuge
REFRAIN
That hymn speaks to me deeply.
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