Happy Sunday!
DOCTRINE AND FAITH
(2 Kings 4,8-11.14-16a; Rom 6,3-4.8-11; Matt 10,37-42;13th Sunday of the Year, June 28, 2020)
This Sunday's Gospel speaks to us of the Lord's demand and of his generosity. The Lord is very demanding, he asks everything for himself, but he is also very generous, he rewards abundantly. Jesus, meek and humble of heart, makes a very strong demand: Whoever loves father and mother more than me is not worthy of me; whoever loves his son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. How come he shows himself as being so demanding? Jesus does it out of love, because he wants to give himself to us and, in order to do so, he must find us free/not occupied, disposed, and available for him. Jesus is not our friend like others: he is the Son of God, and has the right to be loved by us with all our hearts, all our strengths, and all our souls. We must love him in this way in order to truly welcome/accept him. Those who regard him just as a friend among other friends do not really welcome him. That is why he has to express the great need to be loved above all other people. Jesus wants to be loved as we love God, and together with God. Jesus also wants everyone to take up his/her cross and follow him: Whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. Carrying one’s cross is the condition for finding true life. Loving Jesus is very demanding, but it is an authentic love, which satisfies the heart of man. Then the Lord expresses a paradoxical phrase: Whoever finds his life will lose it; and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. Jesus wants us to lose our life for his sake.
The second reading clarifies Jesus’ sentence, because he speaks of the baptised as dying together with him in his passion. Paul says: When we were baptised in Christ Jesus, we were baptised in his death; in other words, when we were baptised we went into the tomb with him and joined him in death, so that like Christ, by the Father’s glory, we too might live a new life. Thus, by my baptism into Christ’s death, his death becomes mine. Christ’s story becomes my story. Christ’s strength becomes my strength. Christ’s risen life becomes my risen life. Paul says: By means of baptism we were buried with him in death. But this death is the source of a new life: ... because, as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too can walk in a new life; If we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him; Consider yourselves dead to sin, but living for God, in Christ Jesus. All these are connected with Jesus’ phrase in the Gospel: Whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.
This baptismal mystery must be present in our ordinary/daily life. We must continually die to sin, to live with Christ and in Christ for God. We must also accept to lose our lives completely, in the case of martyrdom. But even if we do not arrive at this extreme situation, we must lose our life in the sense of entirely giving up our selfishness. We must not seek our happiness, rather we must try to please Jesus, to do his will, which is the will of love, completely opposite to selfishness. Whoever has lost his life by renouncing his selfishness will find true life in the love of Jesus and in love with Jesus. Then Jesus expresses divine generosity, speaking of welcoming/accepting others. He says to the apostles: Whoever welcomes you welcomes me, and whoever welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me. If we welcome the people sent by Jesus, we welcome not only Jesus, but God himself. The gospel narrative advances in a progression as Jesus goes on saying: Whoever welcomes a prophet as a prophet, will have the reward of the prophet, and whoever welcomes a just man as a just man, will have the reward of the just man. And whoever has given even one glass of fresh water to one of these little ones, because he is my disciple, in truth I say to you: he will not lose his reward.
The first reading illustrates the first of Jesus’ sentences: Whoever welcomes a prophet as a prophet, will have the prophet's reward. There is a rich woman from Shunem, who recognised Elisha as a man of God. Then she wants to welcome him: she prepares a small room for him, with a bed, small table, chair and lamp, so that he can retire to it and reflect, read the Sacred Scriptures and prepare his prophetic messages. It is a generous initiative on the part of this woman. But God never lets any one outdo him in generousity. Elisha feels inspired by God to reward this woman. He asks what can be done for her, and his servant Giezi suggests a particularly precious gift for her: Unfortunately she hasn’t children and her husband is an old man. It means that this woman has no more hope of having children, and that her life is empty. Elisha then sends for the woman and has the inspiration to say to her: Next year, in this same season, you will keep in arm a son. 'This promise fills this woman's heart with great joy; her deepest wish is fulfilled. Thus divine generosity manifests itself in a superabundant way.
In the Gospel, Jesus says that whoever gives only one glass of fresh water to one of his lowest ranking disciples will not lose his reward. Jesus’ generosity is divine, and takes into account, even the smallest service rendered to his disciples to foster their apostolate, to promote the kingdom of God. We can, therefore, admire Jesus’ generosity and have great trust in him. This generosity helps us to be generous in our turn. Jesus also teaches us gratitude, grateful love, because he manifests his gratitude superabundantly. The heavy demands and generosity of Jesus, should be the rhythm of our Christian life. Jesus demands from us, because he loves us and does not want our lives to remain empty and sterile, but to be fruitful. On the other hand, he manifests his gratitude, and thus invites us to trust and also show gratitude to others. When someone does us a service, we, if we truly want to be Jesus’ disciples, must generously reward him. In this way, we make the kingdom of love progress; charity spread widely and transforms the face of the earth. +John I. Okoye
(GRAPHICS BY CHUKWUBIKE)
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