Scripture Readings: Second Book of Kings 4:8-11, 14-16; Saint Paul’s Letter to the Romans 6:3-4, 8-11; Gospel According to Saint Matthew 10:37-42
The Gospel passage for this Sunday, recorded by Saint Matthew the Evangelist, is the conclusion of what has been called the “Missionary Discourse” of Jesus in Matthew’s Gospel. In today’s section, a number of teachings of Jesus are grouped together. Perhaps they were spoken at various times in the course of the Lord’s public ministry, and eventually complied collectively by Saint Matthew.
In any case, the teachings contained in today’s Gospel passage might be called “one-liners,” with the implication that they are short, but full of meaning for those who will truly listen and take them to heart.
Initially delivered to his immediate followers, what Jesus said and taught is of course applicable to each of us as well, monks or not, in our daily lives. That is why the Church assigns to for us to hear on this particular Sunday in what we call “Ordinary Time.”
What is the heart and soul the one-liners given by Jesus to us today?
What is being asked of us in the first one is that we prefer nothing whatever to Christ. However much we may love others, be they family members or other relatives, friends and all who enter of our lives, as important as they are and not to be neglected, our love for others needs to be rooted in our belonging first and foremost to God.
The next one-liner from Jesus today notes that each of us has a cross or many crosses to bear, and they are inevitably part and parcel of human life. That means there is no escaping them, but we can embrace and accept the hardships, demands, limited health—whatever it might be—that encompasses our existence, or we can resist and resent life’s challenges and become embittered. Jesus teaches that hardness of heart must be avoided at all costs.
One of the essential aspects of taking up one’s cross is that by doing so, we share in the sufferings of Christ, who carried his cross to Calvary, that we might be partakers of true and eternal life, through his own Death, Resurrection and Ascension into heaven. Where he has gone, we hope to follow.
The third one-liner of Jesus in today’s Gospel indicates that we must let go of self and even put others first, to be a true follower of Jesus. Jesus describes the process of losing oneself in order to truly find oneself, recognizing that we are not at the center of the universe nor the measure of all things.
Instead, followers of Jesus know that “letting go and letting God,” as it is sometimes called, is the way to true happiness and the means of finding real meaning in life.
There are other important one-liners today in the Gospel as well.
We are instructed by Jesus that in welcoming others, we welcome Christ. This is an important notion in the Benedictine Rule that we monks follow, where Saint Benedict teaches that we are to receive all guests as Christ Himself.
If we together form the one Body of Christ, then all of us are “other Christs,” who deserve honor and care. Therefore, Jesus says, giving a cup of cold water to another, be they a stranger or an acquaintance, is extending love to “other Christs.”
The question remains: do we treat others well as a philanthropist does, that is, doing good for it’s own sake, as a moral code of conduct? There is nothing wrong with that kind of behavior, of course, but the follower of Christ does good as one who has been called to do so by the Lord, in the belief that God rewards those who do good.
What we are describing here is not what is sometimes called the “Gospel of Prosperity,” meaning you have a better chance of being rich and having good health, etc., if you follow God’s law. Rather, embracing the teachings of Jesus means that the rewards will be great in Heaven.
There is nothing wrong in looking forward to future rewards from God, especially when our doing good seems to be having no immediate effect. It is important to recount that our lives of love and service are not done for an immediate effect, but in order to glorify God and in the hope that others will glorify God as well.
In the first reading for Mass today we hear an episode from the life of the Old Testament prophet Elisha, exemplifying well what Jesus teaches his disciples some centuries after Elisha. An unnamed husband and wife gently take care of a stranger, Elisha who is passing by, impressing the couple by Elisha’s dedication to God.
From the goodness of their hearts the couple provides for the prophet, not with any reward in mind, but simply out of care for someone they admire.
In their acts of kindness, though, they are given assurance that they will eventually have the joy of the birth of a child, as a reward for their goodness.
What the couple offered to the prophet in the form of food, water, and a place to rest, is returned to them abundantly and delightfully.
Rereading the one-liners of the Gospel today, we find that Jesus is asking us to treat others well, as did the husband and wife in the Elisha story.
Saint Paul expresses the same matter in today’s second reading at Mass, from his Letter to the Romans, indicating that if we die with Christ by our daily fidelity to the Lord, we will rise with Christ to an entirely new life.
The kindness of the Lord is rooted in our very being, calling us to walk in the light of God’s goodness. That means being for one another what God is for us, all love without measure, and intended to last forever.
Abbot Christian Leisy, OSB