(Homily 13th Sunday in Ordinary Time Yr-A)
The point of concentration of today’s
readings is on the theme of hospitality or generosity and its dignifying
dimension. As manifested in the readings generosity
or hospitality can be seen as the most natural outward expression of an inner attitude
of love and compassion. In the same vein, we see the logic of hospitality or generosity: give and receive, it is
the logic of recompense; both the giver and the receiver are enriched. As a
matter of fact, the theme of hospitality connects the Gospel and the first reading.
In the first reading, we see the figure of a simple, rich Shunammite woman, who
out of her generosity showed hospitality to Prophet Elisha, and to show
gratitude Elisha promised her a son since she was barren. The theme of
hospitality reoccurs in the Gospel passage, and therein Jesus invites his
followers to be hospitable to the messengers of the word. This invitation of
Jesus was accompanied with the idea of a recompense, for Jesus promises
something to those who welcome a prophet, a minister of God or a missionary of
the kingdom. And lastly, the letter to the Romans brings to light the new life
(or better new dignity) made possible by and through Baptism, which makes us worthy to be incorporated
into the mystery of Christ our Redeemer, where we become brothers and sisters,
thus vested with the responsibility of sharing with each other as children of
the same Father (God).
In
the first reading (2Kgs 4:8-11.14-16a)
we see the figure of a simple, rich Shunammite woman. She was generous and
caring. She had a spectacular intuition
about prophet Elisha, for one day she said to the husband “Look, I am sure
the man who is constantly passing our way must be a holy man of God” (v.9). The woman recognized him to be a man of God, and in the Old Testament,
one is recognized as a man of God not on the basis of mystical experience but
it is a title that denotes that the person in question is a bearer of God’s word.
So Elisha like his predecessor Elijah (cf.
1Kg.17:24) was recognized as a man of God, because he was entrusted with the effective word of God. The woman
in her generosity made a request to her husband: “Let us make a small roof
chamber with walls, and put there for him bed, a table, a chair and a lamp, so
that whenever he comes to us, he can rest there” (v.10).
And I tell you her generosity dignified her, and changed her situation from a barren
to a fruitful woman. It happened that the prophet felt indebted to show
gratitude for this kindness, he desired to repay her for her generosity. And
one day the Prophet called the servant and asked her: “what is to be done for her?” Then the servant revealed to him that
the woman has no child and her husband is old. For a Jewish woman, there is no
great suffering than not having a child. No doubt this Shunammite woman must
have suffered so much for her sterility. Then the prophet sent for her, and he
assured her “This time next year, he
said, you will hold a son in your arms” (v.16a). And indeed, God
ratified the promise of the prophet and did not allow the woman to wait in vein.
Behold, she was recompensed for her generosity and hospitality. Indeed, whoever that has an open heart for
generosity and hospitality towards others will in turn find hospitality in the
heart of God. God is faithful to words and promises made in His name! The woman
of Shunem that welcomed Elisha in her house demonstrated her love and respect
for the other, for the ‘other’ different from her, someone from a different
culture and background. Similarly, today
we can talk about this aspect of respect for the other in terms of solidarity,
welcoming immigrants and active participation in social charity.
The Gospel passage (Mt. 10:37-42) is the last part of Mathew’s account of the
missionary charge to the twelve. The passage contains two distinct themes, and
we can condense them in the following manner: following Christ even unto the cross and welcoming Christ in the
brothers (and sisters). The two
themes revolve around “us and Christ”. The passage can further be divided
into two parts: the first part dwells on the cost of discipleship. The words of
Jesus in the first part of this Gospel passage are addressed to the apostles
for their mission and whoever desires to be a radical follower of Jesus. Jesus
said to them and to us: “He who loves father or mother more than me is not
worthy of me; and he who loves son or daughter more than me is not worth of
me”. Here Jesus reminds of the primordial
invitation of detachment from father and mother in the book of Genesis: “This
is why a man leaves his father and mother and becomes attached to his wife and
they become one flesh” (2:24). This is a divine invitation to abandon
father and mother for fecundity, here we equally see the logic of giving and
receiving, leaving and finding. The parents are left for another creature,
but there life multiplies and grows. In Jesus’ mission pedagogy he invites us to
leave father and mother for love of Him, for superior values (cf. Mt. 13:44-45). Secondly, he says
“he who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me”, in this
second affirmation we see a progression, not only that one has to prefer and
maintain the relation with Jesus above all else, but one has to accept
sufferings and humiliations for Christ’s sake. It entails loving him above all
else, here equally there is the logic of generosity and recompense: “Anyone who
loses his life for my sake will find it” (v.39),
losing here is all about an active giving of one’s life as a gift, not loss
against one’s will. Thus, Jesus sets
before us the Paschal law: to lose in order to find, to die in order to rise.
This still boils down to the logic of generosity and recompense.
Then on the third part, Jesus makes three
declarative statements on the reward for a generous reception accorded to
messengers of the Good News. As a matter of fact, the two affirmations in the
first part of the passage are linked one with the other, and they reveal the
cost of discipleship. Interestingly, the third part on hospitality and
generosity accorded to messengers of the divine word establishes a wonderful
bridge with the first reading. It is an
invitation for us to receive the messengers of the word with generous hospitality,
not on account of their persons, but because they are bearers of the divine
word. Jesus attaches great reward to the acts of hospitality. In the first part of the Gospel, Jesus promises
eternal life to those who are disposed to lose their life in this world for his
sake and in this second part, he promises a great reward to those who practice
hospitality and generosity. As we
can see Jesus promises a great recompense to a generous and hospitable heart.
He says: “He who receives you receives
me, and he who receives me receives him who sent me. He who receives a prophet
because he is a prophet shall receive a prophet’s reward, and he who receives a
righteous man because he is a righteous man shall receive a righteous man’s
reward. And whoever gives to one of these little ones even a cup of cold water
because he is a disciple , truly, I say to you, he shall not lose his reward”
(Mt. 10:40-42; cf. Lk 10:16).
As a matter of fact, we would like to lay
much emphasis on ‘welcoming’ or on ‘hospitality’, the central message of our
reflection. In the first reading the Shunammite woman was recompensed for her
hospitality with the promise of a son. And in the Gospel Jesus picks up the
theme of hospitality and therein we still see the idea of a recompense, for
Jesus promises something to those who welcome a prophet, that is, a minister of
God, a missionary of the kingdom. What
does Jesus promise? Jesus promises
himself: “Anyone who welcomes you welcomes me” (v.40a) and again He
promises the Father: “anyone who welcomes me welcomes the one who sent me” (v.40b). This reveals that Jesus
attached so much importance to the human gesture of hospitality, to the extent
of promising Himself and the Father. Jesus
in the Gospel went on to give us a concrete example of welcoming someone or
showing hospitality to a stranger: giving a cup of cold water (v.42). Drawing the issue further, a cup of cold water in our context
today could be translated into a helping hand, a letter, a phone-call, a smile,
a word of encouragement etc. In
fact, while describing the general judgment in Matthew 25, Jesus speaks of bread, water, clothes, visits to
prisons, etc. These things cost little
or nothing, but however, many in our world, in our neighborhood are crying and
craving for ‘cups of cold water’. A cup of cold water may stand for any
help, gesture or word offered to the other, that revives and reinvigorates the
person and restores his or her hope.
To give a cup of cold water, to welcome
the other or to offer a helping hand entails going out from our egoism and
prejudices and thus approaching the
other with empathy and a patient listening. It involves giving our
resources and time to our brothers and sisters, strangers or those in need, and
especially to messengers of the divine word as it is suggestive of the passage.
In fact, St. Paul in his letter to the Romans says: “Accept one another, then,
for the sake of God’s glory, as Christ accepted you” (Rm. 15:7). This should be
the model of our hospitality, ‘as Christ’. Therefore, we may ask: how did Christ welcome or accept us? He
accepted us even though we are sinners, even though many times we offend him,
he welcomed us gratuitously even though many a times we turn our back on Him, we have to do same towards others,
especially those we consider different from us, strangers, immigrants, those
from different language, culture, race and colour. Jesus ought to be our
model of hospitality.
The second reading (Rm. 6:3-4.8-11) expresses
vigorously our new dignity realized through Baptism, through which we are
immersed in the mystery of the Risen Christ and participate in the life of God
in our mortal body and in the “here and now” of our personal history. St. Paul
maintained in his letter that the baptized already in this world are “alive for
God, in union with Jesus Christ”. In
this passage we notice that while talking about the idea of a Christian dying
with Christ, the apostle uses the past tense, and on resurrection he uses the
future and conditional tenses. It therefore entails that the new life in
Christ is to be constantly renewed, because what happened to us at Baptism
remains and cannot be removed. We need to live in accordance with the life we
have been welcomed into through Baptism. As such, we cannot but appropriate the
principle of “agere seguitur esse”. It serves as a reminder for us to become
what we are! We Christians, whether good or bad,
have been signed with the mark of God, as was Elisha the prophet. Thus, each one of us can say: I have, through the
waters of baptism in Christ Jesus, been made into something special for God.
In order to help
us understand the profound reality of Baptism, St. Paul reminds us of the
meaning itself of the baptismal rite, a rite that expresses with much efficacy
what the sacrament does in and for us, that is the participation in the mystery
of death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. In fact, with the immersion in water (as at that time it was by immersion,
now we pour water on the head) we
participate in the death and burial of Jesus, not just in the metaphorical
sense but also in the real sense. For through the immersion we are invited to
die to sin (old man gives way for the new man in Christ), while by emerging from the water we take part in the resurrection of
Christ, we rise with Him to a new life, and thus we become “new creatures” (2 Cor. 5:17). This passage of the
Pauline epistle helps us to understand the exalted reality of baptism, the
elevated dignity accorded to us and the sublime destiny in which we have been
called. A dignity and destiny that
reminds us always that we are a family of God, and if we are a family of God we
cannot but share what we have with others, be generous and hospitable to
anyone in need and in the words of Jesus ready to offer a cup of cold water.
In all, the theme of hospitality as
orchestrated in the first reading of today and that of generosity glaringly
presented by Jesus in the Gospel call our attention back to the challenges of
immigration in our world today, this has lately become a hot button issue. We
need to cultivate the attitude of what Carl Rogers, an American Psychologist
called “unconditional positive regard”
for anyone that comes our way, irrespective of his origin, colour and social
class. In this season of the pandemic more than ever, we need to practice
generosity to those who are struggling to make both ends meet. Again, in our
world divided by hatred, homophobia, violence, war, tribalism, nepotism (both in political and ecclesial circles),
indeed, the example of the woman of Shunem and the invitation of Jesus require
an imminent and immediate response.
Nowhere
is welcome more needed than in our world at this present time. Especially in
our country Nigeria where we are swimming in a dangerous sea of tribal hatred
and rejection, uncertainty and insecurity; where everything seems to be
disintegrating, it is high time this reality facing us be stripped of the
intellectual, political and religious verbalizing that it is normally clothed
in. Our country Nigeria has reached a turning-point and it easy enough to slide
into “only God knows what”. We have to rediscover the one universal language of
a life lived out in love, acceptance of the other and hospitality. May the
words of Jesus find a fitting place in our hearts and in our dear country! May Mary the model of Christian hospitality, the woman who
made a space in her heart for the Word just as she made a space in her womb for
his body, the woman who pondered His words in her heart so that gradually her
whole life was filled with his presence, intercede for us. Amen!!!
(Fr. Vitus M.C. Unegbu,
SC)
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