THIRTEENTH SUNDAY OF THE YEAR A 23

13th SUNDAY, 02 JULY 2023, 2 KINGS 4. 8-11, 14-16A; ROMANS 6. 3-4, 8-11; MATTHEW 10. 37-42 Punch line: God - The highest priority! Guideline: It is a simple natural law and principle that we receive back as what we give, we reap as we sow. Therefore, if we do good, it will certainly be accounted and rewarded by God 1. The Lord constantly invites us to be his disciples because that alone is the meaning and fulfillment of our life, our vocation and mission. But this is not an easy task. This is very demanding, especially in a world that is inclined to false values and wrong ways. 2. Now, what it means to be a follower of Christ? What are some essential conditions or salient features of an authentic follower of Christ? In the light of the Word of God, we can enumerate some of these conditions and features. 3. They are namely: Priority to God and highest love for Him, sacrifice and detachment, holy resignation and surrender, perseverance and commitment and finally sensitivity and generosity toward other disciples. This is what Jesus pronounces in the gospel with a tone that is clear, strong, absolute and uncompromising. 4. God should be our topmost priority and love for Him should be the first, best and the highest. It should surpass even the love for one’s own family like for mother or father, for son or daughter: “Whoever loves father or mother, son or daughter is not worthy of me”. 5. One may wonder and argue, ‘but these are the ties and relationships that are quite natural, valid and recommendable’! True. That is why, let us understand this demand in the right perspective. 6. Let us not take this demand of Jesus as unrealistic or unfair or going against the very natural and healthy principle of love and bonding within the family. This in no way means that we should not love our families. Also in no way, it should make one neglect one’s responsibility toward the family. 7. Rather, we should focus on the central point and issue: nothing and no one should be more than God, should come before God, or should stand on the way of God. This invites us to seriously and sincerely check and see whether we give priority and first place to God in our heart and in our life. 8. Whether our love for God and service to Him are at times conditioned, hindered and even abandoned because of our other loves and commitments? Whether we are into undue attachments to our families to the extent of being negligent and unfair in our spiritual and fraternal obligations. 9. It is from this priority and love that all the rest proceed. Be ready and willing to sacrifice everything, even legitimate and natural, even the very life that is so precious to all. 10. In a world where ego and self-interests are central to life, where a spirit of greed, grabbing and accumulation is rampant, where undue attachments and deviations reign high, where there is every tendency for comfort-seeking and thus to avoid and escape from all what is inconvenient and discomforting, especially when it is something for God and good, where complacency and undue autonomy are the order of the day, where disloyalty and mediocrity become more frequent and normal, 11. Jesus urges us quite emphatically to detach and to sacrifice, to suffer and to surrender, to persevere and to commit, and to support and encourage those who are journeying as good disciples. 12. In other words, in the words of Paul to Romans, it means, “to live the newness of life, being dead to sin and alive for God”. Certainly this journey is a hard struggle. But it is not futile. It is enormously rewarding. 13. The woman of Shunem was so hospitable and caring toward Elisha and so she would be richly rewarded with a child. And those who follow the Lord despite and amidst all the challenges and adversities too will be abundantly rewarded here on earth itself with the firmest strength, clearest light, deepest joy and irremovable peace, and then eternal life, after death. Life line: Following the way of God, in being disciples of the Master, in being good and doing good may be a hard road often, while the way of evil and world seems gratifying and rewarding. But the lasting joy and fulfillment of life come only from good life rooted in God