July 2nd 2023. Thirteenth Sunday of the Year
GOSPEL: Matthew 10, 37-42
Translated from a homily by Don Fabio Rosini, broadcast on Vatican Radio
Don Fabio’s reflection follows the Gospel reading ...
GOSPEL: 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.”
The Gospel of the Lord: Praise to you Lord Jesus Christ
1. It is not possible to follow Christ and to continue following the urges of our infantile scheme of survival, trying to keep Mum and Dad happy. How many saints have had to go against the absolutes of family life to live the greatness of their vocation.
The Gospel for this thirteenth Sunday of ordinary time is radical, serious, and very adult in nature. It calls us to go beyond a mediocre Christianity that is like an insurance policy that comes to our aid in times of trauma. The theme is prepared by the story in the first reading of a woman who becomes fertile as a result of welcoming a prophet as a prophet. Here we see the lifegiving character of the word of God when it is welcomed openly. In the Gospel, we might be surprised to hear the radical demands of the Lord, but let us never forget that the life of faith is a calling to an extraordinary life. It is not a calling to a comfortable existence, nor to a life of survival and self-protection. The statements of Jesus are disconcerting: “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.” To lose one’s life – what is being referred to here? During the 1990s, the era of the “New Age”, Christianity was transformed into a system aimed at wellbeing. The true Gospel, however, is always destabilising and calls us to a life that is not simply the life given to us by our parents. Our parents gave us natural life. Jesus, true God and true man, whose divine person took on human flesh, transforms human life into life as children of God. It is an extraordinary life. The Our Father says, “on earth as it is in heaven”. We are called to live this extraordinary heavenly life, the life of the prophet, to be bearers of a word that bears in itself the very power of God. It is not possible to follow Christ and to continue following the urges of our infantile scheme of survival, trying to keep Mum and Dad happy. How many saints have had to go against the absolutes of family life to live the greatness of their vocation. Just think of Francis of Assisi handing his clothes back to his father and breaking his dependence on him.
2. This is the fecundity that we are called to, to be born into a new life. To pass from the life given to us by our parents to a life that is born from above, as Jesus tells Nicodemus, to live under a different fatherhood.
The first reading speaks of fecundity. This is the fecundity that we are called to, to be born into a new life. To pass from the life given to us by our parents to a life that is born from above, as Jesus tells Nicodemus, to live under a different fatherhood. When Jesus says not to call anyone on earth our father, he is not saying that we neglect our parents. Charity demands respect, care and love for our parents, but we shouldn’t think that the life they gave us is the only true life. There is a greater and more noble life, the life of the Spirit. Again, as Jesus tells Nicodemus, what is born of the flesh is flesh, what is born of the spirit is spirit, and often these two types of life are in opposition. There are many “absolutes” that come from our infancy: habits formed in times of discontent, by virtue of the various roles we had to assume, the compensations that we yearned for, the deficiencies that we experienced, etc.. If we keep obeying the dictates of this infantile structure, we will never arrive at the capacity for love according to God. God’s love resets all of these elements and begins from zero, taking as its starting point the things that the Lord has done for us, from his grace, from his power. We see in the catacombs of Rome that the early Christians measured the days of their life as beginning from the moment of their baptism. They took new names, just as Christ gave new names to some of his disciples to show that they were becoming different people, entering into a new life, a different life, a greater life.
3. Trying to get Christianity to fit within our natural lives is to reduce Christianity to a parody of itself, to something mediocre. Because we have diminished Christianity to something horizontal, to something that suits our material interests, we end up reducing it to a moral message and nothing more.
Trying to get Christianity to fit within our natural lives is to reduce Christianity to a parody of itself, to something mediocre. Because we have diminished Christianity to something horizontal, to something that suits our material interests, we end up reducing it to a moral message and nothing more. But Christianity is not a moral system, it is grace, it is the power of God that is born from on high. It begins from the pardon of sins and mercy, and it becomes the work of mercy, the mercy of God which hopes for everything, believes in everything and excuses everything, which does not measure the evil that is has suffered. This love originates in our heavenly Father. This is the life that we must embrace. This is the life that goes beyond the life given to us by our parents. When Jesus says, “He who loves his parents more than me is not worthy of me”, this notion of worthiness is not something ethical. Rather it has to do with being fit for a purpose. A person who is limited by this earthly adherence to infantile things is simply incapable of loving God. Many with important roles in the Church are attached to these unresolved connections to childhood, to tendencies towards rivalry, mediocre aspirations and needs. They love according to earthly things rather than according to heaven.
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