Monday of the Fifteenth Week in Ordinary Time
LEAVE FATHER AND MOTHER
In year I, the first readings of the weekdays of the 15th to Friday of the 17th week of Ordinary Time are taken from the Book of Exodus. They are of capital importance for the religious history of humanity and of God’s adventure with his chosen people. Terms like slavery and oppression in the religious sense, Passover, Passover Lamb, salvation through water, covenant, the making of a people and nation, the Promised Land, the Law and the Ten Commandments, are themes fundamental for Christianity too. The first reading in Year I shows us the slavery and oppression of the Hebrews, the core of the People of God, in Egypt.
Christ could bring us life and grace because he suffered for us. He could rise because he was crucified and died on a cross. No easy life is promised to his disciples. Suffering and the cross are their share too. In God’s plan, this is the way to life. It’s not too comfortable, but these are God’s terms.
Reading 1: Ex 1:8-14, 22
8-10 A new king came to power in Egypt who didn’t know Joseph. He spoke to his people with alarm, “There are way too many of these Israelites for us to handle. We’ve got to do something: Let’s devise a plan to contain them, lest if there’s a war they should join our enemies, or just walk off and leave us.”
11-14 So they organized them into work-gangs and put them to hard labor under gang-foremen. They built the storage cities Pithom and Rameses for Pharaoh. But the harder the Egyptians worked them the more children the Israelites had—children everywhere! The Egyptians got so they couldn’t stand the Israelites and treated them worse than ever, crushing them with slave labor. They made them miserable with hard labor—making bricks and mortar and back-breaking work in the fields. They piled on the work, crushing them under the cruel workload.
22 So Pharaoh issued a general order to all his people: “Every boy that is born, drown him in the Nile. But let the girls live.”
Gospel: Mt 10:34—11:1
“Don’t think I’ve come to make life cozy. I’ve come to cut—make a sharp knife-cut between son and father, daughter and mother, bride and mother-in-law—cut through these cozy domestic arrangements and free you for God. Well-meaning family members can be your worst enemies. If you prefer father or mother over me, you don’t deserve me. If you prefer son or daughter over me, you don’t deserve me.
38-39 “If you don’t go all the way with me, through thick and thin, you don’t deserve me. If your first concern is to look after yourself, you’ll never find yourself. But if you forget about yourself and look to me, you’ll find both yourself and me.
40-42 “We are intimately linked in this harvest work. Anyone who accepts what you do, accepts me, the One who sent you. Anyone who accepts what I do accepts my Father, who sent me. Accepting a messenger of God is as good as being God’s messenger. Accepting someone’s help is as good as giving someone help. This is a large work I’ve called you into, but don’t be overwhelmed by it. It’s best to start small. Give a cool cup of water to someone who is thirsty, for instance. The smallest act of giving or receiving makes you a true apprentice. You won’t lose out on a thing.”
11 When Jesus finished placing this charge before his twelve disciples, he went on to teach and preach in their villages.
Prayer
Lord our God,
we have accepted your invitation
to follow your Son Jesus, as his disciples.
Let your Spirit give us the wisdom and strength
to take our faith seriously
and to accept our task in life with all its consequences.
Let your Spirit help us to follow your Son
without fear or discouragement,
for we are certain that Jesus will lead us to you,
our loving God, for ever and ever.