13^th SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME

 

Readings: 2Kings 4:8-11, 14-16

                Romans 6:3-4, 8-11

                Matthew 10:37-42

 

 

“If anyone gives even a cup of cold water

…he will not go unrewarded.”

 

Last Sunday, we meditated quite at length on what and how it is to be a prophet, to be a witness. Today’s gospel brings us to the same flow of thought. This thematic continuity in the gospel now guides us to another two central points about witnessing as a disciple: one, about the disciple’s priority; two about the disciple's reward.

 

1. The disciple’s priority is Christ. The first part of our gospel today talks about it. It outlines three concrete aspects of man's life wherein this priority takes its real shape. These aspects are: one, his family relations; two, his daily endeavors; three, his very own self.

 

a. “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.” --- First love is born in the family. Love in the family is the foundation of one’s feeling and concept of love. Even the idea of a loving God is quite relative to the child's experience of love from his parents. That is why the amount of love one invests sooner or later outside the family depends, to a large extent, on his basic experience of love in the family. God knows this even more perfectly than we do. Thus, he must be happy to see a loving family, a family tied so closely by the bond of intimate love.

 

However, this experience of love in the family may become an obstacle to evangelical perfection. This is because our religious conscience always teaches us about certain order of priorities. Even mere common sense guides man on the hierarchy of values. And in this order of priorities or hierarchy of values, God stands out as number one. That is why the whole law and the Prophets can be summarized into one basic commandment: “You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind" (Lk 10:27). It is no wonder, then, why Christ demands unto his disciple to set his heart on him. He is just that a jealous God.

 

b. "Whoever does not take up his cross and come after me is not worthy of me." - - - This is the other aspect of the disciple’s priority. Setting one's heart on Christ is setting it on the way of Christ. The way of Christ is the way of the cross. This way of the cross is not found elsewhere but in the daily endeavors of building the kingdom of God. Needless to ask, this entails plenty of works to do. In fact, it includes everything under the sun. This is how all-embracing the disciple’s endeavor is. But of course, God does not expect anything beyond man’s capacity. That is why Christ's setting up of the standard of the cross does not really mean making life more difficult. On the first place, before Christ came with his cross, he knew it already how difficult life has been to man. And he is not that sadist savior who offers salvation by making life more squeezing. So, his insistence on his disciples to carry their own crosses simply means embracing this already difficult life with love. It is to carry this life's burden with a smile. After all, can one not imagine what happens to the already difficult life when carried with frown on the face? It's making a "double-cross"! It's placing another cross over a cross. Surely, no disciple seeds any extra. Neither Christ.”

 

c. The third aspect of the disciple's priority sets on his very self. The love of self is strongest and most determinant. For whatever reason does man make good or bad, it always traces back to the love of self. Even the killing of oneself is stilt traceable to a distorted, type of self love. This only proves how self love motivates, influences and determines one’s life. No wonder, the Old Law puts the love of self as the basis of loving others: “You must love your neighbor as yourself" (Mt 19:19). But as Christ now comes to perfect the Law, he also sets a great paradox as indicative of true discipleship: "He who cares only for his own life will lose it; he who loses his life for my sake will find it.”

 

The strength of this paradox lies on losing one's life for Christ’s sake. "For my  sake” affirms the big shift in Christ's new commandment of love, i.e. from the love of self to the love of Christ. The love of Christ is all-embracing, uncompromising and unconditional. This love is more than life. Or better, it is a love that makes life. Thus, most blessed is he who is willing to give up his self-love for Christ's love. He is that true disciple who finds life after losing it. And this is no mere rhetoric. Saints and martyrs bear witness to it. That is why every disciple – no matter how insignificant his following be – is also a saint by his own right.

 

2. With this, the disciple's reward comes as a matter of justice. This is the message of the second part of today's gospel. But this reward has two dimensions.

 

First, it is directed to the disciple himself by Christ's assurance of his perpetual favor. He always sides with his disciple, not necessarily because his disciple is exceptionally good but simply because he is a disciple. True, the gospel enumerates the prophet and the prophet's reward, the holy man and the holy man's reward, the little one and the little one’s reward. But we are not to examine meticulously the difference between a prophet, a holy man and the little ones. All of them are followers, all of them are disciples. They come, they preach and they do their tasks not on their own but on account of the one who sends them. Thus, one becomes a prophet or a holy man or that little one in behalf of Christ who makes him a prophet or a holy man or a little one. So, his priesthood, his holiness, his being a little one is not a matter of personal account or of any personal achievement or what. It is rather a matter of personifying Christ. He stands in behalf of Christ and ultimately of the one who sends Christ. That makes him worthy of a disciple's reward.

 

Second, this reward extends also to .those who treat a disciple well. Humanly speaking, good treatment is to a disciple a big consolation. It is in fact already a reward. Although the disciple is called to follow Christ, the fact remains that he is no Christ. He is still a man whose sentiments are just the same as those of any other human being. So, if treating a foreigner as a neighbor makes anyone a “good Samaritan,” much more will it be for him who welcomes a disciple with a heart of charity. Here, one simple act of charity hits a two-level target. The first level is simply humanitarian. He welcomes a fellow human and that's a mark of civility. The second level is more religious. He welcomes not only an ordinary man but a man of God. This adds gravity to such simple charitable act. And because of this, the eyes of heaven never sleeps nor divine justice ever forgets: “I promise you if anyone gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones, because he is a disciple of mine, he will not go unrewarded.”