THIRTEENTH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME (A)
Come In, Feel At Home
Unless you are an exception to the rule, most people feel very happy when they are made to feel welcome, especially in homes and communities where they are new. In our times, certainly in urban settings, the sense of hospitality is disappearing at a very alarming rate. Christians in their communities, even in their own parish churches, are becoming strangers to one another. Let us listen to Jesus in this Eucharist how he expects us to welcome one another as he welcomes us.
Reading 1: 2 Kgs 4:8-11, 14-16a
One day Elisha passed through Shunem. A leading lady of the town talked him into stopping for a meal. And then it became his custom: Whenever he passed through, he stopped by for a meal.
9-10 “I’m certain,” said the woman to her husband, “that this man who stops by with us all the time is a holy man of God. Why don’t we add on a small room upstairs and furnish it with a bed and desk, chair and lamp, so that when he comes by he can stay with us?”
11 And so it happened that the next time Elisha came by he went to the room and lay down for a nap.
Elisha conferred with Gehazi: “There’s got to be something we can do for her. But what?”
Gehazi said, “Well, she has no son, and her husband is an old man.”
15 “Call her in,” said Elisha. He called her and she stood at the open door.
16 Elisha said to her, “This time next year you’re going to be nursing an infant son.”
“O my master, O Holy Man,” she said, “don’t play games with me, teasing me with such fantasies!”
Reading 2: Rom 6:3-4, 8-11
That’s what baptism into the life of Jesus means. When we are lowered into the water, it is like the burial of Jesus; when we are raised up out of the water, it is like the resurrection of Jesus. Each of us is raised into a light-filled world by our Father so that we can see where we’re going in our new grace-sovereign country.
Could it be any clearer? Our old way of life was nailed to the cross with Christ, a decisive end to that sin-miserable life—no longer captive to sin’s demands! What we believe is this: If we get included in Christ’s sin-conquering death, we also get included in his life-saving resurrection. We know that when Jesus was raised from the dead it was a signal of the end of death-as-the-end. Never again will death have the last word. When Jesus died, he took sin down with him, but alive he brings God down to us. From now on, think of it this way: Sin speaks a dead language that means nothing to you; God speaks your mother tongue, and you hang on every word. You are dead to sin and alive to God. That’s what Jesus did.
Gospel: Mt 10:37-42
“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.”
Prayer
Our kind and caring God,
your Son Jesus welcomes us in your house,
speaks to us his message of hope
and nourishes us with his own body.
Let him dispose us to welcome in his name
those he sends to us, known or unknown,
who ask for justice and love,
for integrity or a mere glass of water.
Make us an open and hospitable Church,
that one day you may welcome us with joy
in your eternal home.
We ask this through Christ our Lord.