Monday in the Fifteenth Week of Ordinary Time, July 17, 2023

Matthew 10, 34-42; 11, 1

Jesus said to his Apostles: “Do not think that I have come to bring peace upon the earth. I have come to bring not peace but the sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; and one’s enemies will be those of his household.  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; and whoever does not take up his cross and follow after me is not worthy of me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.  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 receive a prophet’s reward, and whoever receives a righteous man because he is righteous will receive a 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.”   When Jesus finished giving these commands to his Twelve disciples, he went away from that place to teach and to preach in their towns.

The words for today’s Gospel Reading are taken from the very end of the Lord’s counsels to the Apostles before their first mission.  St. Matthew has just recorded the Lord’s prophecy of the persecution they will face one day for their faith in him.

“Do not think that I have come to bring peace upon the earth. I have come to bring not peace but the sword.”  Even on the heels of the Lord’s prophecy about persecution this comes abruptly.  First, because Jesus speaks of himself as “I have come” into the world, that is, deliberately choosing to come into the world, which, of course, no mortal human being can do.  The Lord refers here to his pre-existence with the Father and the Holy Spirit.  Second, Jesus speaks of the expectations of those who believe in him, that he, the Messiah, will bring peace to Israel with the successful revolt against Rome.  These words at the very end of this discourse are what the discourse is really all about.  He will work through his Apostles, who are the “sheep” sent among the wolves of the world, to bring about the conversions of many.  The wolves will not take this threat to their domain lightly and will react with terrible violence.  In this way, the Lord brings a “sword” into the world: the Gospel, which disrupts the kingdom of the wolves: “The word of God is living and effectual and more piercing than any two edged sword” (Hebrews 4, 12).  The Lord continues, “For I have come to set a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; and one’s enemies will be those of his household.”  He uses a figure of speech to say that the Gospel will be opposed by the wicked of the world, and they will attack those who believe in it.  The wicked, hating Jesus, will attack him through those who believe in his words.  And it will be revealed that many of the wicked are of one’s own family and neighbors.  This should not surprise us since some of the Lord’s own relatives and neighbors tried to kill him at Nazareth.

“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; and whoever does not take up his cross and follow after me is not worthy of me.”  The Lord has referred to his pre-existence with the Father in heaven, which would have stunned and shocked those who heard him.  He builds on that now making demands that no mere human being could make: he is to be the center of the lives of those who would belong to him, and no one else.  Not even Moses made a demand of this kind.  After hearing him say this. The Apostles must have wondered, “What manner of man is this?”, and then remembered, “for the winds and the sea obey him” (Matthew 8, 27).  “Whoever receives you receives me, and whoever receives me receives the one who sent me.”  That is, Whoever believes you believes in me.  The Apostle is the official herald of the Lord, and to believe the Lord’s announcement, made through the Apostle, is to believe in the Lord himself.  “Whoever receives a prophet because he is a prophet will receive a prophet’s reward, and whoever receives a righteous man because he is righteous will receive a righteous man’s reward.”  That is, a heavenly reward.  Here, “receiving” means “to learn from”.

“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.”  Jesus calls the Apostles — and those of us who are not among the great and the influential of the world — “little ones”.  It is not an insult but an endearment.

“When Jesus finished giving these commands to his Twelve disciples, he went away from that place to teach and to preach in their towns.”  Matthew says, “in their towns”, not just “in the towns”, implying that Jesus came as an outsider or a foreigner, thus underlining the meaning of the Lord’s teaching that he had chosen to come into the world as one who pre-existed in heaven and did not belong to the world: “I came forth from the Father and am come into the world” (John 16, 28). 

The Lord has begun to teach the Apostles that he is greater than Moses and the Prophets, and next he will teach them that he is even greater than John the Baptist.