13th Sunday in Ordinry Time (A)

July 2, 2017

Dear brothers and sisters,

Peace and all good!

Here is my Homily for this Sunday, 13^th Sunday in Ordinary Time.  May it help you in increasing your faith and love in the Holy Eucharist and in the Word of God!

Fr. Yosi, OFM

Readings:

First Reading – 2 Kings 4:8-11, 14-16a

Psalm 89

Second Reading – Romans 6:3-4, 8-11

Gospel reading according to Matthew (10:37-42)

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Homily

Jesus said to his apostles and to us today, “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 . . .” (Mt. 10:37).  How is that, is it not written in the Ten Commandments, “Love and honor your father and your mother (your parents)?” although it was not written, “Love your son and daughter.”  This was added by the scribes, I think.  Does Jesus want us to violate the fourth commandment?  Or that he has something to say to us, his followers? What does he mean about “more than me”?

Jesus is giving conditions to those who would like to follow him and even those who already following him.  He would like to know who will persevere to the last and who can obey his wishes and commands; for the true followers of him can sacrifice themselves for a cause – to proclaim the good news of the Reign-Kingdom of God “to the ends of the earth.”  He wants us to love him first, in order to know him better, before loving our parents, husband or wife, or sons or daughters, our immediate family members, whom every day we accompany them, and besides it is because we cannot do anything of what Jesus wanted us to do if we always thinking and prioritizing our parents, husband or wife, or sons and daughters before doing our tasks.  Very often, our family members are very demanding.  They need us in many ways; our help, our support either – financial, material, psychological and physical presence.  They wanted all our time, all our efforts, all our energy, everything in us, just to be with them.  So, how can we do what our Lord Jesus Christ commanded us to do – to spread the good news to others, even to our family members, neighbors and friends?  Jesus’ command also requires us to give time, energy, effort, and concentration.  It is also a very demanding work.  It does not mean we have to leave and reject and abandon our responsibilities to our parents, husband or wife, sons and daughters.  We have to love them as well.  But first, we have to love God all the more, more than anybody else, for He is our God and we are his people.  If we love him first, first he will love us, but if we love him second or last, he will love us also secondly and/or lastly.  If we love him first, he will give us all our needs, and the needs of our loved one – parents, brothers and sisters, husband or wife, sons and daughter and even those near to us.

Another thing in obeying and loving our Lord Jesus Christ is that “. . .  and whoever does not take up his cross and follow me is not worthy of me” (Mt. 10:38).  As followers of Jesus Christ who takes away the sins of the world by carrying upon himself the cross, we, too, should carry our own crosses daily.  Most of the times, our crosses are our own family members themselves, and those near to our hearts, as well as those who are against us. They give us many problems, headaches, heartaches (toothaches) and many other aches in daily living.  But, we have to carry them and bring them to the altar of the Lord.  We have to accept our crosses because we love them.  We are ready to make sacrifices for them, since Christ made sacrifices for us by carrying his cross, in obedience to His Father.  When we carry our crosses we also obey our Heavenly Father in imitation of His beloved Son.

Also, as true followers of Jesus Christ, we have to offer our whole being to him, without limit, “walang ititira para sa sarili,” even at the expense of our life.  “Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it” (Mt. 10:39).  It does not mean we do not give value and importance to our lives that we do not care our life, but rather all the more we treasure it, for it belongs to God, the Giver of our life.  It means also, as what St. Paul said to the Romans, “Are you unaware that we who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death?  We were indeed buried with him through baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might live in newness of life” (6:3-4).  Our death in baptism is our participation in the death of our Lord Jesus Christ in the Cross of salvation and of newness of life.  “If, then we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him” (Romans 6:8).

In the end, due to our love in Christ Jesus, that He is our priority, our first in life, and we performed with our whole heart, our whole soul, our whole mind, and our whole selves, and as we believed to what he said, that: “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 receives a prophet’s reward, and whoever receives a righteous man because he is righteous will receive the righteous man’s reward. And whoever gives only a cup of cold water to one of these little ones to drink because he is a disciple – amen, I say to you, he will surely not lose his reward” (Mt. 10:40-42), he will do it for us who obeyed him.  Like what happened to the prophet Elisha in the first reading (2 Kgs. 4:8-11), where he was received by a woman in Shunem to dine with her, and this woman told her husband to prepare and ready a little room for Elisha whenever he comes he has a place to rest, because she sensed that he was a prophet.  In returned to the good deed done to him, Elisha, after asking his companion Gehazi, “What can we do for her?” that she “has no son, and her husband is old” (2 Kgs. 4:14), he promised to her “This time next year you will be cradling a baby son” (2 Kgs. 8:16).  She got her reward from a prophet, a son for the good deed she has done to the prophet.  How much more we will be receiving good things from our Lord Jesus Christ, especially “newness of life,” if we do what he says to us?  Because we are Christ’s followers, little ones, even a cold cup (glass) of water to quench our thirst and suffice our efforts in participating in proclaiming the love and mercy of God and the Father’s Reign-Kingdom to others.

“Forever I will sing the goodness of the Lord” (Ps. 89) sung by the psalmist.