CHRISTIANITY IS THE RELIGION OR SPIRITUALITY OF THE CROSS.
Today, our Christian lives are full of challenges and crosses that lead to transformational changes and witnesses to the gospel of Christ. These challenges or crosses are good indicators that we are doing the right thing.
THEME OF HOSPITALITY
One of the essential marks of humanity is hospitality. It is not only one of the most important virtue or tradition of man that has to its credit a whole industry of hospitality of hotels or hostels today but also an ability of the human interpersonal relationship to accommodate, relate, connect, feel and empathize for or with a stranger outside the circle of our friends or acquaintances.
The readings of this Sunday are a call, an invitation as well as a challenge to all of us to be hospitable and charitable as Christians to the unknowns of everyday life. Especially today, in our world of the narrow-mindedness of class, race, status, tribes, beliefs, affiliations, and orientations.
FIRST READING: 2 KINGS 4:8-11. 14-16
In our first reading, we see the welcome given to the prophet Elisha by an elderly, childless couple who lived in Shunem. The wife recognized the holiness of Elisha. She showed him reverence and hospitality by inviting him to dine with her and her husband and by arranging an upper room of their house so that Elisha might stay with them when he visited the area. In response, Elisha promised her, “This time next year you will be fondling a baby son.”
In 2 Kings 4:8-11. 14-16, the unknown woman of Shunem and her family demonstrated love, care and hospitality to Prophet Elisha, a man of God and as such they received the divine blessing of a Child from God as the reward for their charity and hospitality: first to a fellow human and secondly to a man of God.
SECOND READING: ROMANS 6:3-4. 8-11
The letter of St. Paul to the Romans is one of the most important letters of Apostle Paul to the early Roman Christians. In Romans 6:3-4. 8-11, St. Paul articulates the mystery of our baptism in connection with the salvific death and resurrection of Christ Jesus. It is not only a source of Christian victory over sin, evil and death but it is also a source of our universal brotherhood and sisterhood in Christ. A course that invites us to treat each with love, respect and hospitality.
The second reading, taken from Paul’s letter to the Romans, explains why those who care for the followers of Jesus are caring for Jesus himself, and those who show hospitality to any one of them are eligible for a reward. By our Baptism, we have been baptized into Jesus’ death and buried with him, and we look forward to our resurrection with him (Rom 6:5).
THE GOSPEL: MATTHEW 10: 37-42
In the Gospel of Matthew 10: 37-42, Jesus gave us the evangelical and kingdom preference of a disciple in the question of the world, persons, family, things or suffering to Him. As well as declare with profound assurance the universal care, love and treatment we will get for being his disciples and eternal blessings and rewards for all who treat us as his representatives.
In the Gospel of Matthew 10: 37-42, Jesus was absolutely clear and honest with us being his disciples suffering, pains and crosses.
Being a Christian implies facing a lot of strife and conflicts even from family members whose lifestyles our preferential option for God would challenge.
Therefore, for Jesus, the cross, pain and suffering are indispensable if one wants to be a true and authentic follower of Christ.
He also gave us the evangelical and kingdom preference of a disciple in the question of the world, persons, family, things or suffering to Him.
As well as declare with profound assurance the universal care, love and treatment we will get for being his disciples and eternal blessings and rewards for all who treat us as his representatives.
All service ranks the same with God. Whether the prophet or preacher and the one who serves them. Our acts of hospitality to servants bring to receive them blessing like them.
MISSIONARY DISCOURSE OF JESUS TO HIS DISCIPLES
Since Baptism is our entrée into this new life, it makes us part of the Body of Christ, and Christ is truly present in us. That is why the one who welcomes us welcomes Christ and becomes eligible for a reward.
Today’s Gospel lesson concludes Jesus’ great “missionary discourse” in which he instructs the twelve apostles on the cost and the reward of the commitment required of a disciple. The first half of these sayings of Jesus details the behaviour expected of his disciples, and the second half speaks of the behaviour expected of others towards the disciples.
Jesus assures his disciples that whoever shows them hospitality will be blessed. Those who receive Jesus receive the One who sent him. Also, those who help the “little ones,” (believers) and the poor, the sick, and the needy will be amply rewarded.
(i) There is God out of whose love the whole process of salvation began.
(ii) There is Jesus who brought that message to men.
(iii) There is the human messenger, the prophet who speaks, the good man who is an example, the disciple who learns, who in turn all pass on to others the good news which they have received.
(iv) There is the believer who welcomes God’s men and God’s message and who thus finds life in his soul.
The sheer honesty of Jesus more vividly displayed here is that he sets the Christian life at its most demanding and uncompromising standard. He tells his men and us exactly what we may expect if we accept the commission to be his disciples.
1. He offers warfare; and in that warfare, it will often be true that a man’s foes will be those of his household. This is very true in many families, in the church, it is truer: those who fight and bitterly and negatively criticize the pope, bishops, and priests or coordinators of groups and associations are members of clergies and pastoral agents in the church. Their bitterness, rancour and counteractions kill pastoral spirits and infest the spiritual sphere of the Church.
2. He offers a choice, and a man has to choose sometimes between the closest ties of earth and loyalty to Jesus Christ.
3. Jesus offers a cross. The cross means a Christian may have to sacrifice his ambitions, the ease and comfort that he might have enjoyed, and the career that he might have achieved. He may have to lay aside his dreams, to realize that shining things of which he has caught a glimpse are not for him. He will certainly have to sacrifice his will, for no Christian can ever again do what he likes; he must do what Christ likes. In Christianity, there is always some cross, for it is the religion of the Cross.
4. He offers adventure. He told them that the man who found his life would lose it, and the man who lost his life would find it. There is no place for a policy of safety first in the Christian life. The man who seeks first ease and comfort and security and the fulfilment of personal ambition may well get all these things–but he will not be a happy man; for he was sent into this world to serve God and his fellow men.
On a personal level, the readings of this Sunday, especially the gospel is my history and story since the first time or day I left my family to answer God´s call. From my formative days as a religious student or seminarian up till now as a missionary religious priest in the faraway land of Mexico. I am a living testimony and evidence of the overwhelming, extraordinary and lavish care, love, and attention of the Catholic faithful.
1. We cannot all be prophets, and preach and proclaim the word of God, but he who gives God’s messenger the simple gift of hospitality will receive no less a reward than the prophet himself.
2. We cannot all be shining examples of goodness; we cannot all stand out in the world’s eye as righteous; but he who helps a good man to be good receives a good man’s reward.
3. All service ranks the same with God.”
OUR PRAYER
Lord Jesus Christ, you are the love and care provider of all that we have, that we are, and we will ever be or have through your faithful people’s loving care and support. Amidst the challenges, crosses and crises of our Christian life, give us the grace and humility to appreciate the lovely people who support us daily and even those who make life sometimes unbearable for us as your disciples with prophetic voices among them. May we learn to serve them always and everywhere with reciprocal love and care. Amen.
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