Monday in the Thirteenth Week of Ordinary Time, July 1, 2024

Matthew 8, 18-22

When Jesus saw a crowd around him, he gave orders to cross to the other shore. A scribe approached and said to him, “Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go.” Jesus answered him, “Foxes have dens and birds of the sky have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to rest his head.” Another of his disciples said to him, “Lord, let me go first and bury my father.” But Jesus answered him, “Follow me, and let the dead bury their dead.”

“When Jesus saw a crowd around him, he gave orders to cross to the other shore.”  As St. Matthew tells it, the Lord desired to cross to another shore after he had spent the better part of the preceding evening healing the sick.  The Lord is ever on the move, preaching and healing. 

“A scribe approached and said to him, “Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go.”  This scribe, presumably a Pharisee, comes to the Lord and announces to him that he will follow him everywhere.  He does not need to tell the Lord this; he could simply do it.  It seems, though, that he wants praise from the Lord, or an invitation to join his Apostles, or merely the approval of the crowd.  The Lord warns him, “Foxes have dens and birds of the sky have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to rest his head.”  That is, even the animals have places to sleep, but he and his Apostles do not, so constant is their life on the move.  The life of preaching the Gospel requires the utmost sacrifices and eschews any worldly reward.  The Lord’s answer is wonderfully poetic in its imagery.  We can interpret it in many ways, as well, following the Fathers.  The “foxes” can be understood as thieves and robbers, while the “birds” can be understood as those who give up everything in order to live a life of prayer and contemplation: thus, even the thieves have a regular place to live, as do monks, nuns, and hermits, but not the Son of Man.

“Lord, let me go first and bury my father.”  One of those who was already a disciple says this.  According to Luke 9, 59, the disciple answers in this way after Jesus had told him, “Follow me.”  The disciple uses an idiom here, saying, in effect, I will follow you when my father dies and I have made arrangements for my family.  It is something like a refusal and reminds of the excuses offered by those invited to the great feast in the parable, such as, “I have bought a farm and I must needs go out and see it. I pray you, hold me excused” ( Luke 14, 18).  This brings a stinging rebuke from the Lord: “Follow me, and let the dead bury their dead.”  That is to say, those who will not follow him are the dead.  This disciple has life and death set before him.  To reject the invitation of the Lord is to reject true life.  The Lord Jesus was not calling him to be an Apostle, but simply to follow him steadfastly, rather than trying to follow him part-time or half-heartedly.

We need not leave our homes and families in order to follow the Lord Jesus.  We can follow him at home, within our families, and in our jobs.  We remember the practical way that Mother Teresa answered a young woman who wanted to join her order but could not because of her responsibilities: “Where I go, you cannot, but where you go, I cannot.  Together, we can do something beautiful for God.”  We can follow the Lord wherever we are if our heart is with him.