The Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, July 2, 2023

Matthew 10, 37–42

Jesus said to his Apostles: “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 a righteous man 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 the little one is a disciple — amen, I say to you, he will surely not lose his reward.”

“Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me.”  To clarify this verse a little we can consider an alternative translation from the Greek: “Whoever loves father or mother more than me does not deserve me.”  That is, does not deserve his friendship.  God does not owe us his friendship.  He offers it to us out of his love for us.  Friendship with him does not benefit him but benefits us immensely in every way.  The Lord’s saying that “whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me” does not go against the generosity of his offer, but enables a person to grow in his capacity to receive the Lord’s friendship.  We must desire his friendship with all our hearts in order to ready ourselves for it.  Loving him more than father or mother or children or one’s spouse does not mean we stop loving these others.  In fact, by placing him first in our lives we love other better.  We love them for their own sake and not for our sake.  We also love them for the Lord’s sake, for he loves them too.  And by loving him more than anyone else in our lives we simply reciprocate, to a small degree, his love for us, for in giving himself up to a brutal Death for our sake, he showed that he loves us more than himself.  And we are not innocent lambs that he should die for us.  St. Paul reminds us: “For why did Christ, when as yet we were weak . . . die for the ungodly?  For hardly for a just man will one die: yet perhaps for a good man some one would dare to die. But God commends his charity towards us when as yet we were sinners” (Romans 5, 6-8).

“And whoever does not take up his cross and follow after me is not worthy of me.”  This “cross” can rightly be understood in various ways.  Certainly, the Lord is speaking of a commitment to love and follow him unto death, just as the Lord himself did.  In speaking of loving him more than mother and father, he means the intensity of love for him.  In speaking of taking up one’s cross, he means the perseverance of this love.  We might say that the Lord is speaking of the “width” and “length” of love.  The “cross” also means anything that hinders us in our work in spreading the Gospel or in living a virtuous life.  It is not a suffering which we have caused ourselves through wicked actions: “For one is approved if, mindful of God, he endures pain while suffering unjustly.  For what credit is it, if when you do wrong and are beaten for it you take it patiently? But if when you do right and suffer for it you take it patiently, you have God’s approval” (1 Peter 2, 19-20).  In taking up his cross, one gives up one’s life — or, “loses” it: “Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.”  The lover of Jesus gives up his life in order to receive life with the Lord.  To “lose” one’s life means to hold the Lord above all people and things and to follow him wherever he leads, conforming our will to his.  This can be accomplished only with the help of grace, for which we must pray.  We can compare “leaving” this life for the Lord with the Hebrews leaving Egypt.  They left a land and life they knew, “when we sat over the fleshpots, and ate bread to the full” (Exodus 16, 3), for a land of which they knew only through the promises of Moses, a land supposedly flowing with milk and honey.  At times, on their journey there they regretted having left the familiar if hard life in Egypt, but they rejoiced when they arrived and they could see what they had given everything up for.

“Whoever receives you receives me, and whoever receives me receives the one who sent me.”  If, through grace, we are conformed to Christ and he gives us a share in his life, we become his ambassadors, his other selves, just as he represents the Father.  We then spread the Gospel through our works, words, prayers, and even by our presence.  Those who are attracted  by these are attracted to Christ.  They “receive” him.  In order for them to receive him they need us to go to them, even as we needed God to come down from heaven to save us.  In going to them, we show that we are committed to Jesus above all things, that we love him more than life itself, and we carry out his will no matter who or what tries to hinder us.