Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time

Each of us have preferences. We might prefer one political party to another or one football team to another. Some people prefer tea to coffee. As we go through life, we prefer some people more than others. Those we prefer can become lifelong friends. Even within our own family circle, we can prefer some of our siblings to others, although we love them all. In today’s gospel reading, Jesus makes a very striking statement about preferences. Addressing sons and daughters, he declares, ‘Anyone who prefers father or mother to me is not worthy of me’. Addressing mothers and fathers, he says, ‘Anyone who prefers son or daughter to me is not worthy of me’.

Jesus had a habit of making statements that shocked people. How are me to understand this statement of Jesus? Jesus was keenly aware of the deep bonds of affection that bind family members. Yet, Jesus calls on us to love him with a love that is stronger even than our love for our family members. Later on in this gospel of Matthew, Jesus will say that the greatest and first commandment is ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind’. Only God is to be loved in this complete way, with all our being. Jesus is saying that this quality of love that is due to God alone is also due to him because he is Emmanuel, God-with-us. We are to love him with an even fuller, deeper and stronger love than we love those for whom we have the strongest affections. We are to give him first place in our lives, in our love.

This quality of love we are to have for Jesus is always in response to his great love for us. He loves us with a love that is stronger than any human love. He lived his life for us; he gave his life for us on the cross; he rose from the dead for us; he lives forever to intercede for us; he has poured his love into our hearts through the Holy Spirit. In the second reading, Saint Paul says that ‘we were baptised in Christ Jesus, baptised in his death’. We have been baptised into, immersed into, the Lord’s great love for us, a love that was fully expressed in his death. Having been immersed in the Lord’s love, we remain in his love throughout our lives. We are always the Lord’s beloved brothers and sisters, members of his beloved family. The Lord’s love for us draws us into a sharing in his own life, a life over which death has no power. We already share in the Lord’s risen life, a life which our own biological death will not destroy or interrupt. We spend our lives loving the Lord in response to his life-giving love for us. We try to surrender ourselves in love to him, giving back to him all he has given us, our heart, mind, soul, and strength.

This is the loving relationship that the Lord desires with us. In giving ourselves over to the Lord in this way, we don’t lose ourselves. Rather, as Jesus says in the gospel reading, in losing our life for his sake, in giving our life back to him in love, we will find our lives. We will live fully human lives. In giving ourselves in this wholehearted way to the Lord, we don’t lose our freedom either. Rather, we become truly free. As Jesus says in the gospel of John, ‘if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed’. This is the freedom to live as God created us to live, the freedom to love others as the Lord has loved us. The Lord’s love for us, poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, frees us to live lives that are shaped by his love. We are freed to bring his love to all who cross our path. This is what Saint Paul means when he writes in another of his letters, ‘Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom’. The truly free person is not the person who is free to do what he or she wants, but the person who is free to do what the Lord wants, free to love others as he has loved us.

The Lord’s love for us is a welcoming, hospitable, love. He is like the father in the parable who hosted a lavish welcome meal for his returned rebellious son. Every Sunday the risen Lord lovingly welcomes each of us to Mass, to the table of his word and the table of the Eucharist. As we grow in our relationship with the Lord, learning to love him above all else, we will be freed to share his welcoming love with others. An image of such welcoming love is found in the first reading. A widow shows Elisha the prophet generous hospitality. Another image is there in the gospel reading, in the person who just gives a cup of cold water to one of Jesus’ disciples. The Lord’s welcoming, hospitable, love can find expression even in the smallest acts of loving kindness towards others. We thank God for all the ways that is happening in our parish today.